It's been another fun couple of weeks. I'm excited to have finished my Tree of Life wallhanging, which was the class project from my Jane Sassaman class at Houston last year. I really like how it turned out!
Since my previous post, I applied the binding and did the main panel background quilting. I applied the binding first because I like to get that out of the way and because it's easier to quilt the inside with the clean edge on the outside. I'm really happy with how this binding turned out and I'd rate it as one of my best bindings ever. The corners, where I have my biggest problems, turned out almost perfect!
For the background quilting, I decided to do some dense quilting that played off of the design of the background fabric. The background is a single piece of fabric that changes from yellow at the top to blue at the bottom by increasing the density of the blue dots on the yellow background. For the parts that read as yellow, I used yellow SoFine thread and did a dense stipple in the yellow with pebbles around the blue dots. Here is the first section (the area in the "V") quilted:
I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but I love how cleaner everything looks once you get that background densely quilted! The unquilted background areas just look puffy and cause the appliques to recede, but once the background is quilted the appliques come forward and everything looks so sharp! That's what I find so fascinating about quilting. Here's a picture of the back where you can see the top portion of the background quilting better:
It was a bit difficult to get good lines in this area because the thread matched the background too well so it was difficult to see where I had already quilted, but I like how it turned out. As I got to the bottom, where the blue dots were so dense that they disappeared into each other, I switched to blue thread and just quilted pebbles.
Now I just have to sew on the hanging sleeve, which is pinned to the quilt and ready for the hand stitching. Some people sew the top edge of the hanging sleeve inside of the binding, but I'm really picky about my binding and you don't get as clean of a binding when you do that so I put in the extra effort to stitch the entire hanging sleeve by hand.
Of course, I've also worked on some other projects. I came across a tutorial for a little bag and decided to make one to try out the construction. I wanted to do it right away so I would have the construction in my head since I know I won't find the blog post again. This is the Patchwork Gift Bag by Sherri McConnell. Here's my version:
I went ahead and made it the size in the pattern, even though I was a bit worried that it would be too small to hold a knitting project. It did turn out a bit small, but might still be useful for a small project like socks or mittens. But I'll find uses for it.
I also did some work on my second Sue Spargo project bag, the Birds on Parade Sac. I got the applique done and started on the embroidery.
I'm really enjoying doing the embroidery on the wool! The back side of this bag doesn't have any applique or embroidery on it, but I might add some after I finish the front. It depends on how anxious I am to get the bag finished and put a project in it!
I also continue to work on my knitting projects. I finished my pair of Flip-Top Mittens by Laura Nelkin:
I found some really cute buttons in my stash to use and I really love how these turned out! These will be going into my Homeless Shelter bag, but I might have to also make a pair for myself.
At the end of February, I got my second installment for my Sunshower Shawl by Ambah O'brien. This is a year-long project and I hope to keep current on it, so I knit that up right away:
The colors are really beautiful so far! Just a couple more weeks until my next installment......
I also received my March 2019 Lola's Choice kit from Laura Nelkin. This is a bi-monthly project club. This month's project is Ironish in some gorgeous gray and pink yarn, which I'm keeping in my beautiful Sue Spargo project bag:
This project looked too fun to set aside. It has a really interesting stitch and I love playing with beads, so I started this project and added it to my WIPs. Here is a close-up of the beautiful beaded Iron stitch:
Isn't that cool? I'm about halfway done with this project.
I would have finished it, but realized I needed to get back to the mittens (above) and the baby sweater (no progress this time) if I'm going to get them finished by the end of the month for Laura's knit-along.
Finally, yesterday I received this month's installment of my Jimmy Beans monthly knit club project. This club has monthly installments on 3-month projects. This quarter's project is the Moxie cowl that I've shared with you before and this month was the final installment. I really love this project so had to dig into it right away. I got the knitting done:
I just have to connect the ends and this project will be finished. Then I just have to decide: do I keep this for myself since I love it so much, or do I give it to my niece who loves to wear blue because it goes so well with her blonde hair?
I hope everyone is staying warm through these last few dregs of winter and a looking forward to a beautiful spring!
Nancy
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