A Couple of Finishes

The Pineapple quilt is all finished! Washed, to soften it, and on our bed.

The quilt started out like this in 2016-

It is cut with a template from Marti Michell. This is the one for 1" finished strips.

I cut out all the blocks, and just pieced them over time. This is probably my favourite way to make a quilt.

The blocks are 14". They were really nice to sew, and went together so well.

There are 49 blocks, set on a 7x7 layout.

I quilted an all over meander (because that is one of my favourite designs to quilt). I love how crinkly it comes out after washing. I used silk batting. The top was cut from mainly from fat quarters, and the backing is plain cotton. I used Essential Pro thread for the free motion quilting, and quilted it on my domestic sewing machine. 

It is about 94" square after quilting and washing (I needed it to shrink a bit because it is a bit big for our bed). 

Maggie was a big help testing it out before I stitched down the binding,

and even while I stitched.

My other finish this week is a hat that has been my car knitting for the past little while.

The pattern is the Therese Hat by Nina Machlin Dayton. It looks better on than lying on the floor, but it is a very different hat style.

It is made from some handspun yarn from a local fleece. The particular fleece was different from the other fleeces I was given. It had very short fibres and was so full of vegetable matter that I only ended up with a small amount of fibre to spin, but it is incredibly soft (also very different from the other fleeces).

In the summer I dyed the yarn with Indigo (the above photo is a more accurate colour).

 I am really happy with the texture, and colour of the hat.

 The next photo is from the trail cam-

One coyote, but another one was close behind (caught on another photo) - walking down the road. The pair were caught on camera a few hours later walking the other way.

All the best!♥︎

January Round-Up and a Start

January was a productive month for me. I think the main reason was because to celebrate 10 years of blogging I decided to blog every day for the month - I needed things to write about! Some days it was just about tiling bathrooms, but at least those are finished now too.

I finished four projects in January - a woven table runner (with handspun yarn as part of the weft), a quilted wallhanging, a quilted table runner, and a quilt for a single bed.
I completed four projects as part of OPAM (Thanks Kris!), and two of the projects were part of my WOOFA Challenge (thanks Cheryll!). I realized I am motivated by challenges!

Now for the start-

I finished sewing the Pineapple Quilt blocks together, and pinned it ready for machine quilting.

I auditioned some thread, and decided on the red. Both are Essential Pro thread that I had such good luck with on the last quilt.

I started quilting an overall meander.

All the best!

Pineapple Quilt Top

The WOOFA Challenge is amazing! I am working on my third of seven projects I hope to finish this year (quilts that have been languishing for years!). It helps that it is winter on the Canadian prairies, I don't work outside my home, we will be renovating the basement later in the year, so I won't have  a sewing space for a while, and I am determined to finish these quilts.

Here are my Pineapple Quilt blocks laid out - once again with so many different fabrics it is hard that the same ones aren't side by side. I rotated a few blocks and did my best, but I am sure when it is all finished I will spot two of the same fabrics together.

First four rows sewn together. I really don't know why I didn't finish this before!

All the best!♥︎

Pineapple Table Runner

I finished up the scrappy Pineapple block table runner this week -

It is 16"x28, with 4" blocks. I used a Marti Michell Pineapple ruler set for these blocks (with 1/2" finished strips). It was very easy to cut out, and enjoyable to sew.

Simple all over meander free motion quilting (because it is my favourite to stitch). I used 2 layers of cotton batting, and regular Aurifil thread for the quilting.

This is last week's block for the Temecula Quilt Company 1880 Sampler sew along (also a 4" block).

I also finished knitting a little neck warmer -

Using yarn that I recently spun. The pattern is Vitis by Liza Mutch. More detail can be found on my Ravelry project page.

I finished spinning four more skeins of yarn from the fleece I was given last fall.

I have spun 335g, and over 1000m of yarn so far. I probably have about 200g of fibre left to comb and spin (plus a couple more fleeces outside, frozen in a shed waiting for spring so I can get them ready for spinning). I plan on dyeing the skeins different colours to crochet into a 'scrappy' Granny Stripes blanket (at least that is the plan this week!).

All the best!♥︎

Something New

Recently I was talking with a friend about starting new projects (the start of the year seems to always bring an abundance of quilt alongs, knit alongs, spin alongs...). She suggested it would be a good idea to remember being excited about projects we already had on the go when they were new, and to work on them for a week at a time to get them done. Brilliant idea!

So for the past week I worked on a project that I started exactly two years ago - a Pineapple Quilt. All the pieces had been cut and I had pieced 18 blocks before I got sidetracked by a few new quilt alongs that year (two of them I finished, and a third has morphed into another project). This week I finished piecing the rest of the blocks!! It was amazing how the thought that I was just doing this for one week made piecing these so much better (these blocks were not a joy to put together - 14" blocks, 53 individual pieces per block, they would have been better if they were 10" blocks).

I pieced 31 blocks last week. These are 49, 14" blocks in a 7x7 layout, the quilt will be 98" square. Sewing the blocks together and quilting will wait until another week!

For my 'Year in Craftsy' this week I dyed some fibre following a 'recipe' from the class Next Steps in Yarn Dyeing with Sarah Eyre.

I happened to have the dye colours called for in the recipe, and it was the first time I have dyed fibre this way (in citric acid in a shallow roasting pan).

It came out so nice, and definitely a technique I will try again.

the full bobbins

finished yarn

This a Merino/Nylon blend for socks, which always spins so easily.

All the best!♥︎

Pineapple Blocks

I pieced a few more Pineapple Blocks -

16 blocks so far, so I am almost a third of the way through (16 of 49 blocks). These are 14" blocks.

This is what is on my needles an Arietta Shawl. I bought the yarn while on holiday in Montreal, it is alpaca and silk, so soft and lovely!

On my wheel is some blue merino that I dyed (I love these 'action shots' of the spinning wheel).

The last of the snow melted.

I am sure the birds should be at the feeder not a squirrel.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

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!♥