Happy Holy Week

I didn't plan on giving up blogging for Lent, but I guess I did. Before Ash Wednesday, I considered it, but decided it wasn't necessary. So I am amused that God has seen fit to make my life inconducive to blogging during these six weeks! I could point to a lot of ordinary life events that would excuse the lack of blogging, but they really wouldn't be the reason - something spiritual is afoot and I can't wait to see the fruits of God's labor.

As for sewing, not much has gone on there either, although there has been some. I'll get photos tomorrow of the latest Liverpool Tunic, and I am currently working on a dress from the same Liverpool pattern, made from the batik quilt back I got at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show. For some reason, getting the collar on that dress has been the challenge of my life, even though this is the third time I have sewn up this pattern. I need to move onto to something else and that something else is already picked out: my first Burda pattern.

Meanwhile, my goal of learning to knit has come along nicely. I'm knitting Debbie Bliss' Pleated Wrap in her Spring/Summer 2009 magazine. This is what I have so far:

You can see where my knitting was somewhat tight in the beginning, got considerably looser, but now has settled at the (hopefully) appropriate gauge. (You can also see where my knitting got a bit wrinkled in my knitting bag - it's been awhile since I worked on this as well.) Here is a close up:

I'm pretty pleased with the pleated part. It's an easy pattern Eileen turned me onto, and the yarn is Debbie Bliss as well; a cotton/bamboo blend. It feels fabulous!

This project will provide a lot more practice on knitting, purling, short rows, and endless counting - the wrap is to be nearly six feet long when finished! I've cycled through three sets of needles on this project already: bamboo, aluminum, and now circular. Knitting requires as much stash "stuff" as sewing!

Speaking of knitting, Loy turned Eileen and me onto to a great knitting blog, Mason-Dixon Knitting. Be sure to watch the gas commercial, and then be sure to watch the making of the gas commerical. Really cool!

UFO # 2

Last weekend I finished binding the Heartstrings Quilt. I really enjoyed this quilt - it was easy, used up lots of scraps, and it has great visual impact. I got the idea of putting the red half inch strips on either side of the brown strip in each block from Melva whose quilt blocks were photographed on Mary's Heartstrings blog.

The hardest part of this quilt has been photographing it, as it keeps raining. Or it is dark when I get home from work. Here are some not such great shots outside:

Susan Caldwell picked a good thread color because it looks light on the dark fabrics and dark on the light fabrics:

Given that this is such a geometrical quilt, I wanted sort of a geometrical quilting pattern. I picked a baptist fan variation panto that provided a curved counterpoint to the straight line strip piecing:

Unfortunately, I don't remember what the pantograph is called. But the above photo is a shot of the back.

I had originally planned to give this quilt away; I envisioned it as a man's quilt. But now that I have it done, I can't give it up. It is full of my former projects - there are scraps of dresses I made for me and my mother, scraps from skirts, and shirts, and quilts, usually given to others. Maybe it is because it is my first real scrap quilt, but I just can't let it go. So I'm keeping it, and I have named it "A Man's Heartstrings". It is a substantial weight quilt, due to the muslin foundation of the squares, and it has been keeping me warm every night since I got this done. After reading the Selfish Seamstress blog, I'm trying not to feel guilty about keeping it. : )

Parting Shot: Look what I knitted at my first lesson!

After the very first stitch, it all came back to me, and I just knitted away as if it hadn't been 38 years since I had picked up a knitting needle. How could this be, I wondered? "Muscle memory," said Laura, our fab instructor and knitter extraordinaire. Next week we get to learn to purl!

It's Hip To Knit!

My friend Eileen has worn me down; she has convinced me to learn how to knit. I am rather suspicious of all of this. Maybe she wants me to share in the joys of knitting. Maybe she wants me to join her and Loy as they knit through Scotland and other exotic locales like Doylestown, PA. Maybe she is just tired of knitting me sweaters. And maybe, here's a thought, she wants me to start knitting for her. "Learning by doing" is Eileen's motto. Hmm, I think I am onto something.

Regardless of evil motives, I'll have my first lesson next week at The Yarn Lounge. I learned to knit in first grade, but I can't say I've done much since I was seven years old. It'll all come back to me, right?

As I declared 2010 the year of the UFO, I finished this quilt for my Prayer Sister Donna this weekend. All it needed was the binding and label:

I can honestly say I didn't finish it a minute before I needed it, as I bought the pattern almost three years ago. Here's a shot of Susan Caldwell's machine quilting - she did an all over floral design:

I pieced the binding from the sashing fabrics which included the striped fabric and the tone-on-tone green fabric.

I won't show the label; I have the most inelegant labels in the whole quilting world. I would love to be one of those quilters who showed as much care in the label as with the quilt, but by the time I get to the label, I have so moved on. They end up being scrawled with a permanent marker on a scrap of muslin. I'm just happy there's a label on it.

It's amazing how quilting seems to change a quilt top. Now that it is done, I think this is a sweet little quilt that I really like. It seems so 1920's to me, and it is currently draped over the end of my bed. I better get this to Donna soon before it ends up on my bed permanently.

Parting Thought: The Richmond Esty Street Team is sponsoring a Craft Swap on Sunday, Janaury 31, 2010 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. You can read about it here. I see this an excellent opportunity to donate fabric, quilting books, and notions that I'll never use and someone else might value. And I'll meet other crafters here in Richmond! My friend April Scott will be there - join us!