Wishful Knitting: Two quilts a-going...

May 22, 2013

Steve's mom and I pampered ourselves with manicures and pedicures. I'm very pleased with the nail salon I found. The work is excellent and the customer service even better. We went to Wendy's for lunch and did a little shopping at her favorite thrift store. I thought it was fun.

Later that afternoon I drove to Kingman to knit with Weds Purls at The Spinster. I finished the crocheted dishcloth I started with Karen and continued knitting Square 29.

Woven Stitch Dishcloth
Crocheted using Size H Hook

Closeup of the single crochet stitch and chain

This pattern makes a very close-sttich fabric. Crocheted with 100% cotton yarn makes this dishcloth nice for using and maintaining.

May 23, 2013

Today I joined the quilters at the BHC Guild. We were given directions for the purchase and cutting of fabric prior to today so I was ready to begin stitching. The pattern "Stacks" uses lots of different colors and different shapes, mostly squares and rectangles stacked to make a block. Each block has one pinwheel in it. So we were directed to make 20 pinwheels matching a dark color fabric to a light color one. This took most of the morning and early afternoon. I was really pleased to learn how to match the edges so that the points all matched in the middle. Since there are 20 different colors I could make ten blocks that looked the same by using each color once, but I chose to make 20 different blocks by not using any one color at the same time.

Here are my designs.

Somehow I missed one square. Oh well, I will catch it later.

It was really interesting to see how everyone chose different colors and formed the pinwheels. If the squares weren't placed together correctly, then the pinwheel didn't form. Many were needing to use the seam rippers to rearrange the colors. I didn't have to because I was SO careful. The first square was stitched using two colors. Then two squares were stitched to form a rectangle, which included four colors - two of each. The step was repeated and then the second rectangle was stitched to the first one. And voila, a pinwheel was formed. But each color had to be placed just so or the design wouldn't be right. Fun!!!

Once I arrived home, I placed the pinwheels on my bed in a 5-rows X 4-rows pattern to see if I could form some kind of pattern that I would enjoy seeing in the quilt. I did fine using the dark, light, dark, light, dark exchange until I placed the other pieces with each pinwheel. I didn't like the color combinations at all. So I decided that each block will consist only of the two colors in the pinwheel within that block. I will place the color that matches the color of the pinwheel that I want to "pop" from the design closest to the pinwheel. The other less dominant color will be furtherest away. The background pieces are white, which really makes the colors in the block vibrant. I will share what those look like as I design the layout of each block. I am going to do one block at a time and match as I progress.

May 24, 2013

Today I worked on Vickie's quilt. Steve is coming home for this Memorial Dad weekend and I wanted to get as much progress as I could so I won't be sewing while he is here. But also, I will need to purchase the backing fabric and JoAnn's is having a Memorial Day sale, which if I can get the fabric for a major discount then I will be ahead of the game. But I didn't know how much fabric to purchase until I finished the borders to determine the measurement of the finished quilt top. Also, not sure if I had enough fabric to add the final border. So I spent all morning and afternoon stitching the number of squares needed to complete the inside border. This border is comprised of 124 quarter-square-triangle units. There were about 50 completed, so I made the remainder. I was really thankful for learning how to make those pinwheels because the technique was similar. But I did need to study the pattern very carefully to learn what to do. I did figure it out and completed the borders. Now I still need to attach that border, the outside solid-color, and stitch the binding together. Then I will be able to send the quilt to the quilter's and Vickie's quilt can be sent to her after all these years.

Anyway, here are some photos showing what I did.

Two fabric strips (one red, one purple) right-sides together

I marked the fabric as you can see in the photo to show the measurements needed to make a 4.25" X 4.25" square. The I drew a line from corner to corner to form a triangle. Then I sewed 1/4" on both sides of the edge of each triangle marking. I cut between the stitching and pressed each triangle open to form the squares.

The pressed-open triangles forming squares.

I then matched two squares, right-sides together, making sure that a red was facing a purple and the stitching lines were aligned on top of each other. I then drew a line from triangle point to point. I again stitched a 1/4" seam on each side of the line.

Preparing the new triangle sewing line.

Stitching the new triangle seams

After stitching the seams, I cut on the drawn line and separated the square into two new triangles. I pressed each open and then re-matched them as I had done earlier.

The new triangles

Now each of these triangles are matched to each other with red and purples forming a new seam, making sure that all stitching is aligned to form centered points. These quarter-square-triangle units are then stitched end-to-end form one long panel that will become the inside-middle border. There are two 30-unit panels and two 32-unit panels required.