Swirl Quilt and Lace Yarn

Well I finally sewed together all the squares in my swirl quilt and all that needs doing aside from actually putting it together and quilting it is to put some kind of border around the squares. I’ve decided to piece together a border of plain blocks made up of the other swap technique fabrics in my stash. I’ll probably do that after I’ve put together some kind of quilt for my new grandson that is due to be born in the next week or so.

John holding quilt over deck railing at back of house.

The swirls that make up this quilt were some that I had done myself but most of them were done by other ladies from my fabric dyeing forum in a swap exchange. For a block swap everyone does up the required number of squares and then sends them in to a hostess who exchanges all the blocks and mails them back out to the participants. This way you can dye up say 14 blocks in one colour pathway and then receive back 14 different coloured blocks.

I didn’t want a black quilt so had a hard time coming up with a good colour to match all the squares. Call it lack of imagination but I went with white to frame the squares (there were different sizes) to 15 inches and then a narrow band of light baby blue to tie them together. Black would have been stunning but the blue and white will match the guest bedroom and my bedroom for that matter better.

I also had my Knitpick’s order come in on Friday so thought I would post a picture of the colours that I bought during their recent lace sale.

Knitpick’s “Cloud Alpaca” in the colour Peppermint. I waited 9 months for this yarn to be restocked.

Knitpick’s “Shimmer” in the colour Hush. This is an alpaca silk blend.

Knitpick’s kettle-dyed “Shadow” in the colour Eggplant. Shadow is a 100% merino lace weight wool.

Knitpick’s kettle-dyed “Shadow” in the colour Altitude.

All the yarn together in a stack.

I already have some lace weight yarn waiting to be worked on but since I’d waited so long for the peppermint alpaca cloud to come in and it happened to be right when the other lace was on sale I decided to go ahead and buy some more since the shipping was the same regardless of how much I bought.

The lace yarn was quite reasonable ranging from $5.49 to $2.99 per 50 gram skein. Needless to say the peppermint alpaca was not on sale seeing as how there is such a great demand for that colour. Still, all in all if you figure you need anywhere from one to three skeins of yarn for a lace scarf or stole then you can make one of these projects for under ten dollars. Of course finding the time to do it is another thing but I’m thinking Christmas is a reasonable time frame. I guess another problem would be giving up the project once it’s made.

Karen

Fall bounty

I haven’t posted in a while. I have been working on a quilt top recently. Its made up of tie-dye swirls that I’ve made myself and some I received in a couple of swaps. I was almost done but wouldn’t you know it I goofed on adding some borders so now find myself picking out half of those. There is something to be said for sewing one row at a time instead of doing everything at once. If I’d done that I wouldn’t be at the point I am at the moment. Anyhow I’ll blog the top once it’s done.

I’ve also been doing some canning and making jam. I’ve decided to make some baskets for Christmas this year with different varieties of fruit and I even found some Christmas lids to go on the jars.

Blueberry jam, strawberry jam, peach jam, bumbleberry jam, and canned peaches.

Not a great picture with the window in behind but you get the idea. I’ll have to make some peanut brittle and cookies to put in the baskets as well when the time comes.

Edited to note: Bumbleberries are a combination of fruit in this case blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I guess the tern is either local or Canadian, lol, I didn’t realise.

Karen

Redsuit continued…

Well yesterday I spent about six hours sewing, something I haven’t done in a long while. My youngest son was on his way back to McMaster University and engineering. He belongs to the redsuits and part of his duties is to help out during frosh week with the first year students and help them get moved into their dorms…well that and partying and having a good time.

He stands about 6′ 3″ and his suit wasn’t long enough in the torso for him to wear it comfortably so this year I managed to make some adjustments before he took off. I picked apart the waist and added in a good five inches and then sewed on some badges he picked up while trapsing around Japser National Park and Vancouver with his buddy this August.

I’ve blogged this suit before when I added some shibori and tie-dye fabric to it the first year. Here’s what it looked like first year:

Dan’s redsuit from first year, front view.

Redsuit back view.

Here is what it looks like after the adjustments:

Dan in redsuit at front of house, black waistband inserted with badges.

Back of suit.

Not only did I attach the black waist but I re-did the black lettering on the legs which was beginning to fray and come off. I used “steam a seam2″ and I’m hoping that they will hold as I didn’t leave enough time to take apart the leg seams and zig-zag down the letters.

The suit still looks a bit bare but maybe some more black lettering with his name on top and some other stuff? LOL, that’ll probably wait until next year at the last moment as well.

Karen