WIP Wednesday - 5 Quilts and a bit of Knitting

It's been almost a month since my last WIP post and some of those WIP's don't look much different. I blame Camp NaNoWriMo for stopping my WIP's from becoming Friday Finishes. Now that my brain can fit something other than my novel into it, it is quickly filling up with all the crafts I want to make, and surprisingly a lot of those are quilts. 

I finished making the Spin Cycle quilt earlier this year. I picked the backing fabric which I need to cut and piece to fit (doing that today). I'd love to baste this today but making cookies for teacher appreciation week comes first. It wasn't until I looked at the selvedge of the backing fabric that I realized I am using Cluck Cluck Sew fabric, too. Fabric on the front is an assortment of fabrics that aren't Cluck Cluck Sew. Really dropped the ball there. This quilt is a gift for my son's preschool teacher. She also taught my two older children when they were preschoolers. She deserves a quilt. Her birthday is Sunday, but I'm aiming to gift her the quilt when preschool finishes at the end of this month. Have no idea how I'm going to quilt it. Ideas? ( I had one leftover block, which you can see. Using it on the back as a label and have all three kids sign their names, and maybe a little message, too.)

This fabric is for another Cluck Cluck Sew quilt pattern. My daughter and I fell in love with her Basketcase pattern. I bought it and some fabric and plan on making it for my daughter's birthday next month. Need to get busy cutting and sewing this one.

My Bento blocks have been ignored for weeks. I still need to iron these block halves. I think I got a little depressed about this project when I recounted and discovered I need to make 5 more block halves. It's hard keeping track of so many pieces - there are over 1,000 pieces cut - but in the end they will become 2 quilts for charity. Need to refocus and finish them.

This crazy collection of fabrics is for the Sarah Fielke 2017 BOM. I'm behind on this one too. Need to iron some fabric and then do some paper-piecing this month. I'm a little scared.

And this was a quick fabric pull this morning to make a Rin quilt. There's a QAL going on for this one that I saw on Instagram. And there was something about the pattern I couldn't resist. Not sure when I'll make time for this but the QAL doesn't start until May 17th, so I have time to finish up some other WIP's before then.

And here's the little bit of knitting that's keeping me busy. I'm about to start another test knit for Sarah of Imagined Landscapes.

And I've been working on my Duvessa cowlette. Above I am 2 rows shy of finishing chart B, with only chart C and the border left. The KAL ends on Friday but something was bothering me about the design.

The bump down from the garter section to the lace section. I didn't like it. I want to keep and wear this but that little design element had me thinking I was going to give it away. And that kind of pissed me off. There must be something I can do?

So I started over, working the first part in stockinette instead of garter.

But since I'm not sure I'll like it, or if it will even work this way, I haven't frogged the original. They're both still connected. Not sure I'll get either of them finished by Friday, but I'm going to try.

What have you been working on?

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WIP Wednesday - Knits and Quilts

      Somehow it is Wednesday again, so I took some pictures this morning of everything I have been working on the past week. I have a couple finishes to share on Friday and I cast on one new WIP this week. 

       Took some time to iron what I have sewn together for the Patchwork Olympics quilt. I've decided to alter the design a little so it's a bit bigger and I don't have to cut hundreds of 1.5 inch squares. 

       And since I had some quilting mojo back, I bought fabric. From Green Fairy Quilts and their anniversary sale, I picked up some yardage of yellow and dill. I'll be adding some red for a Saskatchewan themed Christmas gift this year. My brother and his family are currently moving there. I'm using the flag as inspiration.

      And I picked up 2 jelly rolls of Just a Speck. Couldn't resist. Hard to decide which pre-cut I wanted but ultimately decided on jelly rolls. Now to find the perfect pattern for them. These might become a quilt for my daughter. I haven't made a quilt for her in years. Or they might become a quilt for the living room that the whole family could enjoy.

     I have 2 full skeins of this yarn (discontinued but used in this sweater) left, but I'm starting with these scraps to make...

     ... a 400m Sprint shawl. I just knit and knit and knit until it's the length I want. Sounds easy to me and a great way to use up leftovers.

And I knit a few more inches of the first Beacon Hill sleeve. Ready to start the sleeve decreases.

       And I found this red scarf at the bottom of my WIP pile. Finally started the second skein this week. Would be nice to get this finished and ready to donate. It's not really this bright. Some yarn is just impossible to get right.

And a sneak peek for Friday Finishes.

What have you been working on this week?

What's New in the Stash

     It's been a while since I posted some of the new yarn and fabric that have entered my stash. I had been doing really well not buying either but there have been a lot of Spring sales that I did a really bad job of resisting. And Camp Loopy starts next month so I had to order yarn for that too. It hasn't arrived yet so I'll show it off and the pattern I plan on knitting for June later this month.

     Last fall I joined the giftables club at The Loopy Ewe. I didn't post the yarn I received in September but I used it to make my daughter a pair of fingerless mitts for Christmas. Above is the yarn I received for the October kit.  Yarn is by Meadowcroft, Cross Creek Socks in the Polaris colourway. I plan on knitting the Hogmanay shawl by Jen Lucas with it. Guess I still need to take a picture of the yarn I received in November.

     Next up is the lovely Misti Alpaca skein gifted to me for Christmas by my mom from her LYS, Stix and Stones. Hand Paint sock yarn fingering, colorway Reggaeton. My mom gifted me a skein of a different colorway last May that I am finally using (progress photo on Wednesday) but I have no idea what to use this skein for. I am thinking of pairing it with a solid to make... I don't know what.

     Earlier this month, I caved and bought my first Turtlepurl Yarns. It's always nice to support a fellow Canadian. She had a sale and I bought the sock set in the Iris colorway. These will become a pair of socks to be gifted this Christmas.

     And I couldn't stop thinking about this skein of worsted weight yarn, also by Turtlepurl Yarns. I have no idea what it will become. It's much bright in reality and is 200 yards.  Colorway Nano and I got the last skein so I can't link to it. Any thoughts what I should knit with it? A hat? Cowl?

     And WEBS had a flash sale and I ended up buying the above Plymouth Yarn, Happy Feet in the Olive Colorway. I bought 8 to finally make myself a Fogliame.

     And somehow during the same sale, this incredibly bright skein of sock yarn hopped into my cart. Perhaps socks for my sister, or myself. Or something else.

A small amount of fabric has made it into the house as well this month.

      I've mentioned some of the fabrics I have found at a local thrift shop before. Sometimes I go and come home with nothing. Other times, my arms are full. This month I came home with a nice stack. Above are 2 solids. I left the tags with them so I remember how much yardage there is. Both pictured above are over a yard.

      There is more than 5 1/2 yards of each of these. Going to make great quilt backs for at least 2 quilts. Bought for roughly $13. Not bad.

     And some flannel. I want to try and make some pajama pants and shorts for myself and my daughter. And maybe the boys too. The blue on the right from The Loopy Ewe, is just under 3 yards and bought with store credit. The two with tags are from the thrift shop and are about 1 1/2 yards each. Of course I came home from the thrift shop and discovered that I need to buy elastic.

What have you added to your stash lately?

A Quilt for my Son

The Little Guy, Floyd, will be needing a bed size quilt of his own... one day. I didn't really have any plans to start looking for fabrics or a pattern, but when I came across this fat eighth bundle for more than 50% off at Green Fairy Quilts, I decided to buy it. It's the first fabric I've bought in a long time. No link to the fabric as they don't seem to have any more.

Here are the fabrics all spread out. 

He seems to enjoy birds, like his Papa, so I picked out some of the bird fabrics that I've bought over the years that seemed to go along with the fabric bundle for his quilt.

He's really into owls right now and I have a couple owl fabrics that will definitely be used.

This is the pattern I picked for him. The bird fabrics will be the centre with the fabrics from the bundle bordering them. I plan on making at least one more row so it fits a twin bed. 

Here's a closer picture. I will be using black where the brown is in the corners.

There is no real time line for the quilt. Probably would like it complete a year from now. Maybe for Christmas 2015? Just something I will be working on here and there when I'm trying to procrastinate. 

First Day of School

With two of my three kids back in school as of today, I had some time to myself when the Little Guy decided to have an almost 2 hour nap. At first I wasn't sure what to do. Write? Knit? Read? Quilt? I went with the last one.

I finished piecing the Rebel Flock quilt. I plan on quilting it this month and hang it in our bedroom.

Sewed more scraps together for charity quilts. A big stack of 3 inch squares sewn into pairs on the left and some 4 patches (made from 2 inch squares) sewn together on the right. 

Quilted 2 potholders. Not great but nice to have these done. These will be a gift.

Both have the same fabric on the back.

I finally decided what I am going to do with this Cuzco charm pack my SIL gave me. I'll be using the black as an accent for a wall hanging.

With no older siblings to follow around and bug, Floyd got into my stuff. He got hold of some charm squares and had some fun.

He tried to hold them all in one hand.

But had a little difficulty.

Oops.

Picking them back up.

Love his little scrunched up hand overflowing with fabric.

When he was done, he threw the squares on top of some toys.

Quilt Show

This past weekend was the local guild's quilt show. When we first lived in Ann Arbor I was a member  and librarian for several years but haven't gone to a meeting since we moved back 2 years ago.  My daughter and the little guy went with me and we had a good time. Below are some of the quilts we saw and enjoyed.

This really reminded me of my sister's Liberated Churn Dash pattern but didn't credit her. It wasn't specifically in the show. They displayed some of the quilts that members have made to be donated to charity and this was one of them. 

Floyd smiled at this quilt so he got his picture taken with it.

My daughter picked this as her favourite.

One of the more traditional quilts on display.

Inspired by Mondrian.

I voted for this one as my favourite. I kept coming back to it.

This was the first quilt I saw with this pattern (it will reappear later) and I really like it.

There was part of a special exhibit by one of the guild's quilt groups. It won first place in the American Quilting Society's Ultimate Guild Challenge 2013.

More bugs.

My daughter and I both liked the ladybug the best.

The next four quilts were part of another special exhibit by the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild. I would have liked to take more pictures but their members kept standing in front of the quilts chatting. It took two trips to visit the exhibit to get these pictures.

Edited to Add: The AAMQG just did a blog post about their exhibit with pictures of every quilt and a bit about each quilt. Go here to read more and see the rest of their quilts.

An adorable owl.

Owl compared to a lap quilt beside it.

Here is that pattern again. I liked this one a bit better due to the fabric it used - Charley Harper fabrics. They're beautiful but expensive.

I just liked this one.

Back to the Guild's show.

My daughter liked both of these.

Very beady.

Close-up of all the beads. It must have taken a very long time to make this one.

There were several quilts with this pattern as the designer had come to the guild to do a lecture and workshop.

Close-up. I like the log cabin clamshells. Would take some planning before cutting and sewing.

My daughter said I had to take a picture of this one. The leaves are so me, she said. I have to agree with her.

These are the fabrics my daughter picked out (the shop even gave her one free since she was a young quilter).

And these are the fabrics I picked out. No plans yet.