Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers, Week 4 Started

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! The weather here continues to be warmer than usual, but it looks like there might be some real snow in the forecast. We'll see if it comes through.....

Last week was the final week of Angela Walters' Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers quilt along (QAL). This video covered quilting the background of the panel. I got started on the background quilting.

Arcs, Curves & Points - Background Quilting

Then I decided to move to the border. I wanted to get rid of the safety pins that were used for basting the quilt and I wanted to get the binding put on so I wouldn't have to deal with the fluff from the batting anymore. I did stitch-in-the-ditch (SID) quilting between the red and white areas of the quilt and then I stitched along the outside edge to keep everything in place. I could now remove all of the safety pins!

Arcs, Curves & Points - Border Stitching

Then I was trying to decide what to quilt in the red area. This wasn't covered by Angela in the QAL videos. But then I watched Angela's weekly live and she said that she would talk about possibilities for the border quilting in the upcoming live session, so I decided to wait to see what she suggests.

In the meantime, I continued working on my Open Minds shawl designed by Laura Nelkin.

Open Minds

I got one end of the shawl finished and made good progress on the other end. I hope to finish this this week.

I also made progress on my Lemme Cowl also designed by Laura Nelkin. 

Lemme Cowl

I'm on the last pattern repeat so this should be finished this week, too.

Nancy

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers, Week 3

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! Things are good here. We continue to have beautiful, warm weather, but there is some snow in the forecast for this week. Here's hoping for significant precipitation! I'm going to town tomorrow to celebrate the birthday of a friend who had knee replacement surgery last Monday. I'll hit the grocery store on the way home to make sure I have everything I need if we do get a good snow.

Last week was week 3 of Angela Walters' Arcs, Curves & Points Quilt Along (QAL). For this week, we quilted the next two rounds in the panel. What she talked about this week was moving between different blocks while quilting to simplify movement through the quilt.

Arcs, Curves & Points - Week 3

Since I knew that I was going to do the block quilting in a path without traveling on the edges of the pieces, I started by doing the stitch-in-the-ditch (SID) quilting around the edges of the pieces. I started by using a curved ruler for the SID, but then I realized the the curves were subtle and I was also hitting the seam between the panel and the border, so I switched to using my walking foot for the SID and the results were so much better! The SID quilting also stabilized the quilt sandwich so I could easily do the ruler work without having to deal with any pins. Then I switched to my red thread and moved around the quilt, quilting the motifs alternating between the two blocks. Then I switched to a dark blue-purple thread to quickly fill in some of the area at the top of one of the blocks. Since I'm working on the small panel, this week I got to the part of the panel that is cut off by the border.

Arcs, Curves & Points - Week 3 at the Border

For this part of the quilting, I had to estimate how the motifs would be overlapped by the border. To help with this, I made marks in the border using an air-erasable pen that I used for lining up my rulers and then traveled along the border edge to get to the next place for my quilting line. Next week is the final week of the QAL. Angela will be talking about how to use rulers in the background. That should be fun!

As I mentioned above, a friend just had knee replacement surgery last week. One of our quilt guilds puts out a call for Caring Hearts blocks when a guild member is going through something where they might need a little lift. So I spent some time making blocks for my friend.

Caring Hearts Blocks

I tried to make the blocks as personal as possible. There are no guidelines in the instructions for colors, so I hope everyone makes colorful blocks! Strangely, the guild has you trim the blocks to 5"x5". I find that an odd size for quilt blocks, but they are nice and small and quick to make.

For the last several weeks I've been working on another project in the background. This is another potato chip quilt. I was getting overwhelmed by my scraps, so this is a scrappy version. I decided to make small blocks -- just the center and a single round.

Potato Chip Blocks

I'm cutting the bricks 2"x3.5", for a finished size of 1.5"x3". I really like the look of the smaller bricks, I can get bricks out of smaller scraps with this size, and I'll use up more fabric with the smaller bricks, so this size works really well for me. Also, I always cut my binding strips 2" wide, so I can easily get bricks out of my binding scraps. This is fun sewing for when I just need a distraction and it's a perfect project to use for leaders/enders. 

I've also been working on my knitting. I finished my Flowla Shawl designed by Laura Nelkin that I shared last week.

Flowla Shawl

It was nice to get this finished. The yarn is a beautiful cotton/linen mix, but it was really hard to knit with. It is made up of three loosely twisted strands. 

Flowla Shawl - Yarn Close-Up

It's beautiful and soft, but was very prone to splitting. But the finished shawl is beautiful and well worth the effort!

I also picked up another project that I had put away a long time ago. This one is the Open Minds shawl designed by Laura Nelkin as a mystery knit-along (MKAL). In a MKAL, you don't know what you are making when you begin. The pattern comes out in sections, called clues, and when you have finished all of the clues, you have a finished object. I started this with the group, but then got behind. I think I finished the first three clues with the group. Then I got behind while the rest of the clues came out. When I had all of the clues, I decided to skip ahead to clue 6, then came back to start clue 4. This week I was able to finish most of clue 4.

Open Minds

This is the type of project that is difficult for me. I love working on all of the different parts, but I don't find the final object esthetically pleasing. I'm not really into the hodge podge style. This one will end up being like a shawl with really long wings. I think it will end up being a nice scarf on colder days.

Finally, I did some work on my Lemme Cowl designed by Laura Nelkin.

Lemme Cowl

This is the companion to the red Lemme Hat that I finished a couple of weeks ago. This one has a yarn that is really easy to work with. I use it for my background project when I want some relaxing knitting.

Nancy

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers, Week 2

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! A good friend of mine is having knee replacement surgery today so my thoughts are with her. I know so many people who have had this surgery. I hate that anyone has to go through this, but am happy that the doctors have had so much practice so it should go well! I'm very lucky to still have all of my original parts!!

Last week was week 2 of Angela Walters' Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers quilt-along. This was a very quick week to complete because we only had to do two new rounds on the quilt. 

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers - Week 2

As with last week, I found that I had to mark my target spots or things went awry for me. But I don't mind making these small marks before I begin. It's better than having to pick out the stitches! I did start without the marks but had to pick that part out and redo it. For me, it's just too hard to see around the sewing machine to do the stitching without the marks. I don't know how others do it!

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers - Week 2 Close-Up

Here's a picture of the back of this week's quilting so you can see the quilting better:

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers - Week 2 From the Back

I might go back and add some free motion quilting in the top area of the second motif for this week. I'll see how the rest of the quilting goes to see if I think it needs it. I like the softness of the quilt when it has less quilting, but love the look of more quilting!

I was also able to finish my Lemme Hat designed by Laura Nelkin.

Lemme Hat

The yarn is actually a deeper red than it appears in the picture. This is a really nice hat pattern. The stitch pattern acts like loose ribbing so it has a comfortable and secure fit, and it looks really pretty. After finishing the hat, I started working on my Lemme Cowl using the same yarn.

Lemme Cowl

Since I have plenty of yarn and beads, I decided to add a couple of pattern repeats in this cowl so it will be a little wider than my last one.

Finally, I picked up another old Laura Nelkin project. This on is the Flowla shawl. It was a mystery knit along (MKAL) from 2022. I had started with the group, but put it aside when a strand of the yarn got caught in my stitch marker. I tried to get the strand out of the metal loop, but nothing I did worked. I thought I was going to have to either destroy the stitch marker or cut the yarn, neither of which appealed to me. A couple of years ago, I pulled it out and tried again with still no luck. Last week I pulled it out and everything was now okay. The jostling around of the project bag must have fixed the problem for me! So I picked it up and continued on.

Flowa

I had previously finished the first two clues, which were the white center and one of the striped sides. Last week I knit the other striped side and the integrated I-cord edge on the bottom. That completed clue 3. Now I just have one more clue to go!

Nancy