Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Author Archives: Pam

I made my first quilted item as a visual aid for a math project in 7th grade. Over the next 25 years quilting was hit or miss, but quilting took over all the other crafts I've done in 2003.

Stash Report

March 16, 2014 9:21 am ⋅

NQD

Yesterday for International Quilting Day I did a bit of shopping and a bit of quilting.

It’s been a while since I have bought all of the fabric for a quilt at once, let alone paid full retail price – and I was overwhelmed by the cost. I thought I could expect to pay about $10.50 a yard and hoped to buy the fabric at the shop which was having a 20% off sale.  Unfortunately they didn’t have what I was looking for.  So it was on to the next shop.

Wonderful selection of fabrics, but a $1 a yard more than the first shop and nothing was on sale. I found what I wanted to use and then did the math. I was ready to walk out and regroup but my friend with me talked me into getting the gold on the theory that the black and beige would be easier to find. I did some more math and decided to get both the gold and the black, but only enough for the top. (I was planning on a black and gold checkerboard pieced backing).

So, it was on to the 3rd shop.  I’ll admit it. I looked at price, then I looked at the fabric. The dotted fabric is Dinky Dots by Loralie Harris and it has a copyright date of 2007 with a price to match. More importantly I love it. It’s not what I thought I wanted, but it’s giving the quilt  punch.

As for the backing? I decided I’d worry about it another day.

After a much needed nap, I started the quilt. It’s all cut, but about midnight I got stuck figuring out the pressing plan so the blocks will nest together and decided to call it quits. So there’s been lots of cutting this week (this quilt and Jared Takes A Wife), even some piecing, but nothing is finished and the numbers have gone up. But they’ll be going down before the end of the month.

I almost forgot. The week started off with a trip to the Goodwill Outlet where I picked up these:

shirts

As soon as I de-bone them, I’ll adjust today’s numbers.

Fabric added this week: 4.5 yards
Fabric added to date: 12.729 yards

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used to date: 38.487 yards

Net used to date: 25.758 yards

To see if others splurged yesterday hop over to Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

On the Needles

March 14, 2014 11:10 am ⋅

needlesblock

 

This is Easy as Pie, the first knitting project I’ve done in about 10 years.  It really was pretty simple and would be gorgeous in the Jaggerspun that I have, but I couldn’t get it started, so pulled yarn that I could find from my stash — Plymouth Encore in Gray.

Since the gauge was off, I thought I’d knit a few extra repeats to make it bigger.  That was a great plan, but after the 2nd skein I realized I couldn’t do many repeats and the shawl would be small.

needleslace

 

Lack of yarn also meant that I didn’t make the border as wide as designed.

shawlback

 

Bottom line, it’s too small for me, but that’s OK.  It was fun to make and now I really want to make it from my Jaggerspun 18/20 wool/silk.

See what others are knitting on by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Easy As Pie, knitting, On the Needles

Eeyore’s Back

March 13, 2014 8:15 pm ⋅

eeyoreagain

 

I know, it still looks just like  Piglet. And, no this is not an old picture – you can see the shamrock I made at the quilt retreat a couple of weeks ago sticking out from under the edge on the right. BTW, I’ve decided for the moment the shamrock is an Orphan Block. At some point in the future I may revise the designation, but for now that means I can ignore it guilt-free.

18 Days left in the month. Surely I can make some progress on this top.

Posted in: UFOs

Picking Colors

March 11, 2014 8:00 am ⋅

Last time I explained my UFO Logic which will allow me to participate in the Jared Takes A Wife Quilt-A-Long over on the Quiltville’s Open Studio Facebook page without any self-imposed guilt.  Today, I’m going to walk you through my fabric selection logic.

I started with the black & light 4-patches.

bandw4patches

Next, what color do I want to make the quilt? Stacked on my ironing board because I finally unpacked my retreat bag is my purple fabric. I’m going to use this in the quilt.

jaredfabric-purple

It is supposed to go in the box with the pink. So, I best use pink too.

jaredfabric-pink

So, what goes with pink and purple?  How about green. My green & red box is overflowing. (There really is red in that box — just not much).

jaredfabric-green

Actually it wasn’t quite this simple.  Well, the purple was. I passed through yellow & red star points before settling on green star points, pink center squares, and purple long points. But this is where it falls into place.

My yardage is kept in boxes together.  I knew I had a piece of green fabric that I purchased at a thrift store and thought it would be good for the star points and sashing.  As I was digging through my boxes I found a 2 yard piece of a purple paisley.  This is going to be my border.

border72

I found a 2 1/2 yard length of a green – not the one I was looking for. This one is much better.

fusions72

And finally I found a one yard piece of pink.

freckles72

The lighting is off here, but I think this is going to be a great combination.

jaredfabric-choices

I scanned the fabrics and imported them into EQ7 and this is what I’ve come up with.

jaredplan

Now, if I can just refrain from making this my primary project. Eeyore is supposed to be worked on this month and he’s still in the box!

 

Posted in: Jared Takes a Wife

UFO Quilting Logic

March 10, 2014 10:21 pm ⋅

logic4-patches

 

Over on the Quiltville’ s Open Studio in Facebook, a Quilt-A-Long is starting on Monday — either Jared Takes a Wife or Smokey Mountain Stars. I enjoy quilt-a-longs, but I don’t participate as much as I would like for a variety of reasons – most often because I have what seems like hundreds of UFOs and I don’t want to start another quilt until I get something finished.

My leader/ender project is Bricks & Stepping Stones. I’ve been working on it since mid-November sewing scrappy lights to scrappy black 2″ squares.  Only in past week have I started sewing the 2-patches into 4-patches (top right pile of 4-patches). No bricks have been cut.

The bottom right pile of brown and white 4-patches are pieces from my Candy Sunflower Seeds (The Chain Event by Dorothy Young) quilt top that is a UFO to complete this year. Candy Sunflower Seeds ended up in the UFO pile when I realized instead of using a creamy white I used a bright white to make the 4-patches and it simply won’t do. So, when I finish the quilt, I’m going to have this stack of 4-patches left over.

Now my UFO Quilting Logic.

Since there are no bricks cut for Bricks & Stepping Stones, there is nothing to keep me from repurposing those black & light 4-patches and using them in Jared Takes a Wife. By swapping quilts out I keep my quilt in progress number steady and don’t add to the count that I’m trying to reduce.

The brown & white 4-patches?  When I finish Candy Sunflower Seeds, instead of tossing them into the orphan box, I’ll make Bricks & Stepping Stones, up-sizing the bricks to match the 4-patches — but I don’t have to count this a quilt in progress until I know for certain I’m not going to have to take those 4-patches apart.

My UFO/Quilts in Progress count remains the same. I get to participate in the Quilt-A-Long and eventually, I’ll make Bricks & Stepping Stones.

Next time, I’ll explain how I’ve decided on the colors for my Jared Takes a Wife – it’s nearly as convoluted.

 

 

 

Posted in: Uncategorized

What’s On My Design Wall

March 10, 2014 12:25 am ⋅

blackgoldbaby

 

I’d love to say this is on my design wall, but I seem to be in a slump – that happens when I finish up a project, and in the last month I’ve finished 3 quilts. I’ve been doing a bit of reading and I have finished the shawl. I’m ready to do some more quilting. I would have raced to the LQS Saturday to buy fabric for this quilt if I hadn’t decided I needed more sleep.

It’s small 44″ square and I know I don’t have any gold fabric in my stash and don’t think I want to make it scrappy. Very unlike me. On the other hand, this is what I’m planning for the backing:

blackgoldback

 

Cut 10″ squares.

So, on Saturday as I head out to a few LQS with my friend, I now know what I’m looking for.  I do so much better when I have a plan.

As for my slump, it’s time to pull Eeyore out of the box. Perhaps after I get off work this afternoon.

Check out the links over at Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.

Posted in: designwall

Stash Report

March 9, 2014 9:02 am ⋅

This past week I finished a quilt from stash and made two pillowcases from purchased fabric with some left over.  Still I’m very happy with my numbers.

Fabric added this week: 3.25 yards
Fabric added to date: 8.229 yards

Fabric used this week: 5.91 yards
Fabric used to date: 38.487 yards

Net used to date: 30.258 yards

The question now is how will my numbers look after a girls day out to a couple of quilt shops next Saturday…

See how others are doing with their stash over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Stash Busting Report

On the Needles

March 7, 2014 8:07 am ⋅

needles0307

 

It seems like I’ve knit the same 2 or 3 rows 4 or 5 times now.

I’ve started the border.  If I had another skein of the yarn, I’d make this shawl a bit bigger.  Worked from the top down, I marked the end of the skein with the red thread. The second skein didn’t go near as far as the third skein was started a couple of rows before the border.

I’m in the process of ripping out row 6 of the border and I suspect I’ll have to rip out row 5 again.  Maybe next week I’ll get past row 7.

Check out the links over at Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.

Posted in: Easy As Pie, On the Needles

O is for Octagon and Twist

March 6, 2014 6:33 pm ⋅

DY-O

 

This month the letter is “O” and the block is Octagon and Twist. It is the 14th block of Dorothy Young’s Alphabet BOM.  It’s not to late to join.

Click to join apocketfullofmysteries

Click to join apocketfullofmysteries

Posted in: Alphabet Blocks

Into the Mail

March 6, 2014 1:51 am ⋅

AugC_Cases

 

Quilted, bound, label, washed, cases made and into the mail. OK, it won’t arrive on Friday, but I gave it my best shot.

This is the weirdly titled “August C”.  The goal was to get it finished and to UPS by 8 PM Wednesday evening. About 7 o’clock I realized that wasn’t going to happen, so I ran over to Jo-Ann’s to get fabric for a couple of pillowcases.

The quilt measured 66″ x 82″ before it was washed. In my haste, I only got the width after washing 63″. The batting is Warm & Natural. The quilting is “A Little Bit of Fluff” using King Tut Cinnaberry — a red variegated thread. It took just over 2 pre-wound bobbins.

Getting this quilt done was not on my list for the year, but it is on the UFO list so all is good.

Posted in: finish