February 26, 2013

I am not expecting anyone to actually read my postings. I usually just use these to capture my thoughts about the stuff happening in my life, especially as it relates to knitting and now quilting.

Steve is gone for 8 days and so I have lots of time to use for my projects. I am also walking three times a week with my father-in-law. This is good for both of us. It helps me get outside the house and makes it easier to take Christy, my dog, for a walk, too. Otherwise, I might never leave the inside.

Yesterday, I baked lots of fruit nut bread. It was an orange and pecan mixture. Very yummy. I also keep a sourdough starter in the fridge and yesterday I set it out to be fed and to ferment. Last night I mixed up the dough and left it to rise overnight. Now I have two loaves rising and will bake them later this afternoon. Steve loves sourdough bread. I have now acquired a taste for the chewy texture, too. It makes great toast.

I have finished the top of Bruce's quilt. I am now ready to pin the backing, the batting and the top together. But when I was measuring the backing material, I discovered that I am 3/4-yard short. So I must wait until Steve arrives home with the car so I can go to JoAnn's and purchase what I need. So that is on hold for right now.

TOP LEFT CORNER

I added a dark border around the entire pieced portion. Then I added the border displaying the logo. I finished the top with a white border to showcase the entire top. The binding will be from the logo fabric after the quilt is quilted on a long-arm quilting machine by a professional quilter.

BOTTOM LEFT CORNER

I need to leave in about 10-minutes to go knit with The Needlers, my group I started here in the community. So far, only Wendy and I attend, but that is a good start. Wendy crochets and I knit the Sasha skirt. Many of the other residents and some visitors poke their heads through the door to see what we are doing. Some actually come inside and ask questions and visit for a while. As interest increases, I am sure the number of participants will too.

I have enjoyed knitting the Sasha skirt. This third ruffle layer has caused me more re-doing (tinking) than usual. The pattern is simple enough but I keep adding parts of the pattern in places where it is not supposed to be knit. Then I don't discover the mistake until two rows later. Sigh! But at least I am still knitting. Smile.

February 23, 2013

Wow, it has been a while since I posted. But then I have been quite busy. I have been knitting the Sasha skirt and quilting several projects. Most of the ladies here in the RV park are more interested in quilting than knitting. I enjoy this craft, too, but not enough to give up my knitting. So I have been doing both.

I am working on the third of the four layers of the Sasha skirt. If you notice in the photo, I have completed the underskirt (the cranberry) with the lace ruffle. Then the lighter pink is a different pattern ruffle and the forest green is the third layer ruffle, the one I am currently knitting. I really hope this looks as good on me as I am anticipating. <smile>

The Sasha Skirt

I have completed several quilted projects, which has surprised even me. I only began this two months ago.

Place Mats

Fall Inspired Reversible Table Runner - Side 1

Hot Pad

Fall Inspired Reversible Table Runner - Side 2

Fall Inspired Reversible Table Runner

Fall Inspired Reversible Table Runner

A second Fall Inspired Reversible Table Runner - Side 1

Side 2 of the above Reversible Table Runner

A Mystery Quilt Project

The mystery quilt was fun. The instructions are partially provided so that the next step is always a mystery until revealed after completing the previous step. I learned about fat quarters, which are pre-cut pieces of fabric that can be purchased in a variety of colors. I bought 20 for this quilt and you can see the randomness of each in the pattern. The pattern is called a "scrappy quilt" because the leftover pieces of fabric from other quilt projects (the scraps) are used to piece this quilt together. I didn't have any scraps so I bought the fat quarters, which were suggested in the pattern. I quilted this on my sewing machine rather than pay to have it done professionally. I also could have hand-quilted it but didn't want to since the sewing machine is quicker. If anyone is interested in how I did this, just ask.

Because most of the residents are snow birds in our RV park, they will be leaving and returning to their permanent homes in the next couple months. I don't want to stop quilting just because everyone leaves so I will be visiting the local Quilting Guild that meets three times each month here in Bullhead City. Two of the ladies in our park group have been attending the meetings and invited me to join them this upcoming Thursday. It will be interesting to see what is available to me during the summer, hot months here.

Steve just left this morning to drive three tours. He will be gone until next Friday, so I will have plenty of free time to knit, knit, and knit. He took the car and that means I will not be moving to far from my front door. I went to the grocery store last night and stocked my cabinets. Everything else is close to me and available within the RV park. 

I will also be finishing the quilt I started for Bruce. When he discovered that I had finished the mystery quilt, he expressed a desire for a quilt made by me for him. He said it didn't need to be KY blue. Sure it doesn't. So I found the U of K logo fabric online at JoAnn's Fabric & Crafts site. I have finished 4 of the 6 rows of the pieced top. I will be able to finish all of this quilt by myself except for the quilting. It is too large to handle with my sewing machine. I will either need to tie-quilt it by hand or pay a professional to do it on the large quilting machines. Haven't decided which I will do yet.

The pattern is called BQ2. It seemed perfect for the logo squares. I bought a matching KY blue and white fabrics for the light and dark sections of the quilt.

Bruce said he would like a king size quilt, but this pattern only makes a queen size and that is almost more than large enough for me to handle. But because he is my son and I love to do things for him especially when I know he will be pleased, I am stepping outside my comfort zone a lot here.

The logo fabric came in a 4-yard length. There are two different logo patterns, and I had to fancy-cut them, which means I cut-out each square by hand individually rather than use the rotary cutter cutting through several layers at a time. This took one full day from early morning until well after dark to cut-out the required 30 squares. Now I am joining the squares to the light and dark sections and then combining the finished squares into the rows.

This is the first square pattern.

This is the second square pattern, which is a mirror image of the first square.

Because of the different patterns in the two squares, the placement of each became important. Fifteen were arranged in a 1,2,1,2,1 pattern for the 1st, 3rd, and 5th rows and fifteen were arranged in a 2,1,2,1,2 pattern for the 2nd, 4th, and 6th rows.

Needless to say, I WILL BE BUSY for a while. But I love that.