Malini Shawl Progress

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! It was a nice week here. The weather was pleasant -- not too hot, not too cold. We got a tiny bit of rain but nothing significant. I went to the knitting group and english paper piecing (EPP) group meetings this week. It's always nice to get together with friends!

I made a lot of progress on my Malini shawl, designed by Lisa Hannes, this week. I felt driven to get through the mosaic stitch sections. These are the sections with the diamond motifs.

Malini

I didn't quite make it through the last mosaic stitch section, but I'm close. After this, there are some narrow stripes and then the shawl will be complete.

I also made a little progress on my Pluma Morada shawl designed by Joji Locatelli. 

Pluma Morada

It was only about an inch of progress, but every inch counts! 

I made some progress on my Pansy Pincushion designed by Sue Spargo this week. 

Pansy Pincushion

I'm trying to finish a flower each week, although I didn't get to it last week.

Pansy Pincushion - Flower #3

This flower also had a new-to-me stitch: the Raised Cup stitches in the center. My stitches turned out okay, although I had some trouble getting the needle through the spaces where it was supposed to go. They might not be quite right, but they look fine to me.

In our EPP group, I decided to take a different project than the one I usually work on. I felt like working on something smaller than usual, so I took an old project I have sitting around.

EPP Octagons and Squares

For this project, I'm just combining octagons made with Kaffe Fasset fabric with blue squares. These are tiny pieces -- the squares are just 1/2" along each side. I have no idea how big I'll make it or what I'll do with it (could be a quilt; could be a bag; could be a pillow), but I just pull this out and put a few more pieces together every once in a while. Whatever it ends up being, I love how these are looking!

Finally, I was looking through my projects to decide what to take to my sewing groups this week. On Monday, we meet at a friend's house in her classroom space (she has a small fabric store in her house and also teaches classes). We have room to bring our machines, but the space is a bit limited so I wanted to find something that would work well in that space. I decided to start working on my Lilah quilt kit designed by Yellow Cat Quilt Designs. This is one of the kits that I've picked up through the years when Connecting Threads has had deep sales. I decided to cut the fabric for the blocks at home so I would be ready to sew when I got to my friend's house.

Lilah - Fabric Cut For Piecing

I thought this would make the best use of space. I put everything in plastic bags and labelled them so I wouldn't do things like mix up the 3" squares with the 3-1/8" squares. I used a wet erase marker for labeling the bags so I can wipe off the labels when finished and reuse the bags. I used to put post-it notes in the bags for labels, but they would get in the way sometimes so I think this is a better method. Some of these squares will need to be cut into triangles before sewing, but I left them as squares so I wouldn't have the exposed bias edges for longer than needed. After doing the cutting, I found out that our Monday group was canceled because my friend's grandson got sick, but I can still take these to our Friday sew day. We have more room at the Friday sew day so I could also decide to save this project for the next time we meet at my friend's house. We'll see what I decide!

Nancy

Lots of Knitting

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! We are continuing to move into spring here. The weather has been a bit cooler than it had been, but still warm for this time of the year. We only had a dusting of snow last week, so my appointment to swap out the winter tires didn't do the trick. 😂 But it was a good time to get them swapped because my nephew and his wife have scheduled their gender reveal party towards the end of this month and now I'm ready to go! Looks like I'll be starting another baby quilt soon!

For this week, I just did a lot of knitting. First, I finished the border on my Spirits of the Season shawl designed by Amy Gunderson. 

Spirits of the Season

Spirits of the Season - Border

I'm a lazy blocker so I didn't pin the shawl out. If I had, the border would be a lot larger and more open, but I'm fine with it this way. The gray yarn is a fuzzy mohair, making the shawl feel wonderful against your skin.

I also made some progress on my Pluma Morada shawl designed by Joji Locatelli. 

Pluma Morada

Pluma Morada - Close-Up

The color of the yarn is darker, like it appears in the first picture, but the second picture gives you a good look at the patterning of the shawl. This one is knit with a lace weight yarn and so has a very wonderful gauzy feel.

Finally, I got the bug to start yet another shawl. This one is from a kit that I purchased years ago. The pattern is called Malini in the kit, but seems to be called Garlands Around Me now. It is designed by Lisa Hannes.

Malini

Malini - Close-Up

I'm going to continue to call the pattern Malini since I am knitting it from that written pattern rather than purchasing the new version of the pattern and I don't know if there are any differences. This is a good pattern for relaxed knitting because most of it is just simple garter stitch.

Nancy

Atween Finished

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! We continue to have unusually warm, dry weather. I made an appointment to get my winter tires swapped off, so now our NWS forecast has snow in the forecast for my house every day starting tomorrow. Isn't that always the case? 😆 I guess I'll keep my appointment in place for a couple of days to encourage the snow to really arrive, then reassess whether I should reschedule. If I knew a good snow dance, I'd definitely be out dancing in the yard!!

This week I was able to finish my Atween shawl designed by Laura Nelkin. 

Atween

This ended up being a long shawl! The bottom border (on top in the picture) started at 424 stitches and increased to 638 stitches. I was happy to get through each row!

Atween - Close-up

Atween - Close-up

Atween - Close-up

During the blocking, I found a hole where I had somehow dropped a couple of stitches. This is where the two pieces are grafted. The graft was an interesting one where we knit stitches from each side together along the edge, then ran a length of yarn through those stitches to hold everything in place. I must have somehow knit two stitches together from one side while dropping two stitches from the other since two stitches on one side were dropped.

Atween - Hole From Dropped Stitches

After the shawl dried, I cut a length of the blue yarn and used that to repair the hole.

Atween - Hole Fixed

I rarely have to repair anything so it took me a while to figure out how the stitches went together. It definitely isn't perfect, but I think it looks fine. I ended up liking this shawl more than I thought I would and look forward to using it as a scarf next winter!

I also made progress on Angela Walters' Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers quilt along (QAL) project. This week I was able to finish the outer border quilting, added some inner border quilting and applied the binding.

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers - Border Quilting

I don't know how well you can see the quilting in the red border in the picture. I quilted a swirl fill, leaving random triangles unquilted. Since I was working on my swirls, I didn't use the ruler foot so I would have better visibility. This meant I had to freehand quilt the straight lines around the random triangles. There was some wiggling in the lines, but I don't think any of it is noticeable. For the white part of the border, I did use rulers. I also used an air-soluable pen to mark little lines at the places where I had to change direction to make it easier to keep my lines an even distance from the edge of the border. I really like how this part of the border turned out! I might still add background fills to the shapes, but I really like how clean it looks without the fill so that's a decision for later on. Now, I'll go back to finishing up the middle of the quilt.

Since I finished my Atween shawl, I needed to find another project to take to my knitting group. I decided to start a Pluma Morada shawl designed by Joji Locatelli. 

Pluma Morada

I don't know if you can see the stitches in the picture because of the dark color of the yarn, but this is a simple shawl with strips of 2x2 ribbing surrounding strips with a twisting pattern. It can be knit with any weight of yarn, but I'm using a lace weight yarn, like Joji did, to create what will be a light and airy shawl. This should be a good project for knitting group since it is a simple pattern that doesn't require much attention.

While looking for my next knitting group project, I ran across an old work in progress (WIP) from several years ago. This is the Spirits of the Season shawl designed by Amy Gunderson. This was the 2019 Craftvent project from Jimmy Beans Wool. Craftvent were Christmas advent projects where you had a little package to open each day in December until Christmas Eve. The package would either have a part of the pattern and the needed yarn, or a little knitting notion like stitch markers, stickers, needles, etc. It really was fun! I had kept up with this project until the last day, when I put it aside because I needed to pick up a bunch of stitches and I hate picking up stitches. The project ended up in my WIP pile until I found it again this week. I went ahead and picked up the stitches and started knitting the little border.

Spirits of the Season

The right side is where I picked up the stitches and started knitting. This project won't work for knit group because the stitch pattern for the border is complicated and it uses a fuzzy yarn that is harder to knit with. But I can work on it at home and I should have another completed project soon. And the fuzzy yarn is really soft and wonderful!!

Nancy

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers Border Quilting Progress

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! The weather here continues to be warm and dry. I'm trying to decide when to get my winter tires taken off. I usually do that in May since March and April are out snowiest months, but it's looking like I should just get it done now. What a strange year! I've also been enjoying March Madness this week. Unfortunately, my team, the Kansas Jayhawks, just lost last night at the buzzer, but there are still other Big 12 teams for me to root for.

In between basketball games, I was able to get some work done on my Angela Walters Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers Quilt Along (QAL). After watching Angela's video, I decided that I like her idea of quilting the red portion of the border with swirls, leaving random triangles in the border unquilted. You can't see the border quilting in this picture, but here is the entire quilt with that part of the border quilted:

Arcs, Curves & Points With Riulers

And here is a close-up where you can see the quilting:

Arcs, Curves & Points With Rulers - Border Quilting

My swirls are not as smooth and consistent as I would like, but they look really good when they're all put together. I'll put some swirls in the quilt interior, too, to provide some consistency in the quilting. I'm going to quilt straight lines in the white part of the border, again as Anglea suggested. I'll be using a ruler for that so I'll get that done, too, before adding the binding so the binding doesn't get in the way of the ruler.

I also made a lot of progress on my Atween shawl designed by Laura Nelkin. I finally got all of the pieces put together and started on the border. It's starting to look like something now!

Atween

I finished the I-cord edging on the top edge and now I'm working on the bottom border.

Atween - Close-Up

This shawl is LONG! The bottom border is 424 stitches wide. I was careful when picking up stitches to get the right count, but somehow ended up with an extra stitch when I started the patterned rows. I just decreased a stitch in this row and added stitch markers so I should be able to tell if I get off again for any reason and fix the problem as it occurs. That decrease stitch will be invisible in the final shawl, but mistakes like that in the patterned section would cause the pattern to not line up correctly.

Finally, I also did some work on my Pansy Pincushion designed by Sue Spargo. I was able to add the embroidery on Flower #2.

Pansy Pincushion

Pansy Pincushion - Flower #2

I had some trouble getting Bullion Loops (the blue flower petals) to look good, but they turned out fine in the end. I really enjoy doing the embroidery!

Nancy

Pansy Pincushion Started

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! It was another slow week for me, craftwise. We had another long power outage this week -- this time from Thursday morning until Saturday night. This time it wasn't a planned outage so the length of the outage was a surprise. They kept saying the power would be back in a couple of hours, then they would extend it or switch back to "assessing the damage." It was very frustrating! But the power is back now and I didn't have to throw away very much food so things are good.

I decided to make a start on. my Pansy Pincushion designed by Sue Spargo. It was a good hand project to work on in lower light. I got all of the pieces cut out and appliqued to the background.

Pansy Pincushion

Then I got the embroidery done for the first flower.

Pansy Pincushion - Flower #1

This flower has a Bullion Rose stitch in the center. This is my first time trying this stitch. It looks fine, but could be improved. I do love trying new stitches!

I also made some progress on my Atween shawl designed by Laura Nelkin. 

Atween

This week I made a start on the third trapezoid. It wasn't a lot of progress, but any progress is good!

Nancy

Tula Sunrise Progress

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! We're back from Kansas City and my septic line is fixed, so I'm doing great!! The guy who did the work was incredible. He didn't just replace the line, but he saw other problems, like some places where the line went uphill, and fixed those, too. And he jackhammered the rock in places to make sure that the line would be completely buried. I'm so appreciative when someone goes the extra mile for you!! Our weather continues to be unusually warm, but we did have a storm come though last weekend and we got over a foot of snow. It's mostly melted already, but it's great to have the moisture!! I'll just keep hoping for more.....

Before leaving Kansas City, I was able to make some more progress on my Tula Sunrise quilt designed by Tula Pink. I got the first sun finished.

Tula Sunrise - First Sun

These are the largest pieces I've ever used in English Paper Piecing (EPP). I took the paper out from behind the center piece and it made the whole piece wavy, but I think it'll be fine since the fabric for the pieces wasn't pulled too tight across the paper when they were attached. I'll iron the unit the next time I visit to see what I think. I also got the rest of the center pieces basted and ready to be sewn to the triangles.

Tula Sunrise - Basted Pieces

As I prepare a fabric piece, like one of the center pieces, I also prepare any other pieces that are needed from that fabric. So, for example, each fabric used for a center pieces is also used for two of the triangle border pieces. The fabric used for the sun ray triangles is also used in the border, so the orange/white polka dot border pieces were also prepared. I organized all of the fabric to match all of the fabrics with the instructions and found that I'm missing two of the solid fabrics in the kit. I'll check under my cutting table to make sure they didn't slip under there when I was folding the fabric after washing it, but it's not a problem if it wasn't included in the kit. I have a collection of Tula Pink solids that I can pull from so I'll just pick two from there. When I get back to Kansas City, I'll go through all of the fabrics and decide which ones I'll put together for each of the suns. I might choose the combinations that are in the picture of the quilt (the first one matches the example), or I might decide to go my own way. Tula obviously has better color sense than I do, but I might also be using a couple of different solids from what she used. And I might just like something else better.

I've also made some good progress on my Atween shawl designed by Laura Nelkin. 

Atween

I've got the first two sections completed and now just need to make the third section and attach it, and then add the border. 

Atween - Close-Up of Graft

I was looking back at the pictures in the pattern and realized that I mixed up the colors when making the shawl. I had already wound the yarn so didn't have the ball bands connected to each yarn. I went back and forth looking at things and thought I had figured out which was which color name and matching that to the information in the pattern, but, obviously, I screwed that up. Oh, well. I think the color placement in the pattern looks a little better than my color placement, but this will look good, too.

Nancy

Tula Sunrise Started

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! I'm still visiting my family. The excavator called last Monday to let me know that the guy who is going to do the majority of the work on my septic line would be out for a couple of days because his mom had triple bypass surgery. I hope it is all going well for her!! I haven't heard from the excavator again yet so I'm delaying my return home until Thursday. Then, I'll have to go home regardless of the status of the work since my cat is at home alone. Hopefully the weather is reasonable and they are able to get the work done by then!

I brought my Tula Sunrise kit designed by Tula Pink to my sister's house.  This is the kit that I decided to keep here since it is English Paper Piecing (EPP), which is all hand work, so I don't need a sewing machine to work on it. 

Tula Sunrise

I started by organizing the paper pieces. They were all jumbled together in the kit, so I separated them out into baggies along with the cutting template. Then I organized the fabric and figured out how each is used and how to follow the pattern. Finally, I was able to start basting the center pieces and the large triangles for the border. I only have a few more of these pieces to baste, then I can start working on some of the smaller pieces.

I've also been making progress on my Atween shawl designed by Laura Nelkin. 

Atween

This shawl is built as three separate pieces that are grafted together and then a border is added. I've finished the first piece and am almost done with the second. I haven't looked at the grafting instructions yet so that will be and adventure!

Nancy