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!♥︎

A Quick Christmas Gift

I knit a hat for my husband, for Christmas (he needed a warm hat, that was long enough to go down past his ears - this should do the trick). The pattern is Baa-ble Hat, and ever since it came out, it has been one of the top patterns on Ravelry - it is so cute! I was so pleased to have a reason to make it.

I spun the yarn with wool from different sheep breeds - the first three are natural colours, white - Shetland, dark brown - Coopworth, grey - Gotland, and the last one is a Merino Cross from a local sheep farm (Sheeples), I had dyed it shades of green. The wool came from all over the world too - New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Canada.

I spun a thick, 3 ply yarn. The spinning took twice as long as knitting the hat (I do have some leftover yarn).

Three ply yarn is such a nice round yarn, and perfect for stranded colour work (2 ply is good for lace and plain knitting).

I made some modifications to the pattern and more details can be found on my Ravelry project page.

I wanted to share this post (link) from Angela Walters that I found on Pinterest today - it is tips on machine quilting - not technical tips, but how we are hard on ourselves and the reason why we make quilts, well worth watching. This is why I quilt - nothing brings me greater joy than seeing my family use what I make!

This is my oldest son watching a hockey game on TV, using two quilts (look at those curls! - his hair is short now). The quilting on the top quilt is nothing fancy, but my favourite design to quilt, I loved all the steps in making that quilt, it would never win any prizes at a quilt show, but I don't need it to, the fact that it is finished and gets used is everything to me!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

Mini Quilt Finish

I finished my Temecula Quilt Co mini mystery (We Wish You a Mini Christmas). It is 7"x19.5". I used two layers of thin batting, and regular cotton thread for the free motion quilting.
These mini mysteries are always so much fun - it is nice quilting along with friends, and this year I quilted along with my Mother too!

Here is her little quilt. She recently took her first Craftsy class (and loved it) - Creative Quilting with your Walking Foot by Jacquie Gering. Her quilt is quilted with one of the decorative stitches - it looks great!

Since I usually have two knitting projects on the go (a pair of socks and something else) I started a new project. This is Aglow by Kristina Vilimaite. I am using some yarn that I dyed and spun, it is a gradient, black to white. So far the pattern is a bit of a struggle, but I am sure it will be worth it.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

One More and Some Finishes

One more block added to the growing pile of tiny blocks.

I finished the sweater I knitted from yarn I spun this summer. The yarn is 100% natural merino, that I chain plied (4 ply yarn), about dk/worsted weight. It is knit top-down with raglan sleeves - I made up the pattern as I went along (I had a basic idea in my head of what I wanted when I started).
This is the easiest type of sweater to make without a pattern because you start by make a swatch to determine the number of stitches per inch, and then all I did was measure how big around the neck I wanted the sweater to start out at - this determines the number of stitches to cast on (81 for this sweater). More details/photos can be found on my Ravelry project page.

Now I have started knitting a pair of socks. The pattern is Elm. I am using my favourite sock yarn - Blue Label by Tanis Fiber Arts in the colour Atlantic (these are the most amazing hand dyed yarns!).

Here is another finish, a couple of pillowcases for Christmas (I hope my sons don't see this, but I am pretty sure they don't read my blog!). A couple of years ago, for Christmas, I made my sons (young men) pillowcases, at the time I thought they just accept that their mother makes things (i.e. not much excitement), but recently when their pillowcases were beyond repair and I got rid of them, they both, independently of one another, asked me what had happened to their pillowcases - words like 'loved' and 'favourite' were used!! That was all I needed to hear, and I was off to the fabric store in search of novelty fabric (hard to choose!).
Here is the link for the pattern I used.

I thought it was interesting how the rabbit was digging in the snow for the seeds.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

More Little Blocks

Nine Temecula Quilt Co mystery blocks finished, three more to come. These have been so quick and fun to make (2+1/4" blocks).

The local John Deere dealership always has a lovely Christmas display - this year Santa in a swather.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

Little Quilt Blocks

I had forgotten that the newest Christmas Sew Along from Temecula Quilt Company started at the beginning of December, so today I caught up.  The blocks are just 2+1/4" finished - very quick to make (details on the sew along can be found here). I have made a couple of their little sew along quilts, and for this one I have chosen to just pick fabric at random (hopefully it will end up looking nice and scrappy!).

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎