Began Quilting Inclusivity

Hi all -

I'm happy to say that I've made some good progress on the quilting on Inclusivity, my niece's graduation quilt. She graduates with her psychology degree in December so I'll bring this to her when I go home for Christmas. I think I'm going to make the deadline! I've started with stitching in the ditch around all of the hexagons and ghosting the extra hexagons. Then I echoed that stitching on the inside of each hexagon:

These are all done using thread that matches the fabric color of the hexagon. I've now started echoing around the outsides of the hexagons using thread that matches the background fabric:

I'm over half-way done with this part of the quilting. Here is what the full front looks like:

And some pictures of the back:

All of this quilting has been done using rulers. For my non-quilting friends, this means that I have an acrylic ruler that is about 1/4" thick that I lay on the quilt about 1/4" away from the line that I want to quilt. I have a special round foot on my sewing machine that is a circle with a 1/4" radius with the needle in the exact middle of the foot, so the edge of the foot is 1/4" from the needle in all directions. This special foot is also tall enough so that the ruler won't slip under the foot and get hit by the needle, which could cause damage to the sewing machine. I then butt the sewing machine foot up to the edge of the ruler and slide the quilt and ruler, keeping the ruler butted up to the sewing machine foot, while sewing. This allows you to sew straight lines on the quilt in any direction, which is important with a large quilt stuffed into the small throat space of a sewing machine! There are a lot of bobbles and mistakes, but if you step back far enough, it looks pretty good. But I'll be very happy when I get this last bit of echo quilting done and can put the ruler away!!

When this last bit of echo quilting is finished, I'll start on the main background quilting. That will be done in vertical lines. Originally, I thought I'd do straight lines using the walking foot on my machine, but I think that will look too severe. Then I thought about using the stitch on my sewing machine that gently curves back and forth, but that looks too regular when I picture it in my head. So, I'm planning on doing free-motion vertical lines on the quilt that gently curve back and forth in an irregular fashion. I think the organic look will go well with the severity of the lines of hexagons.

The last bit of quilting I will do will be to fill in the hexagons with different fills. I'm planning on using a different fill for each color. I'm saving that for the last because it will be the most fun. And I can do this quilting after putting on the binding, which will reduce the bulk of the quilt when putting it under the sewing machine and will get rid of the fluff that gets all over the quilt from the batting when it's not bound yet. That fluff really annoys me so I always like to get the binding on as soon as possible!

I've also, as usual, been getting some knitting done. I finished the A Little Lonely Cable hat by Joji Locatelli for my niece:

I really like the fun green pom-pom I had in my stash! I also knit this Mountain Hiker Hat by Jennifer Myrick for my brother-in-law:

I think these both turned out really nice!

I also unknit my sister's Paris Mittens by Andrea Arbour and restarted those:

I didn't like how my first attempt was going and they were a bit small, so I decided to start again using bigger needles. I think the size is better and we'll see how they look when I get a bit further. I've never done colorwork with this small of yarn and needles so I'm a bit concerned with how they will turn out. Just in case, I also decided to start knitting a pair of Riverfront Mitts by Amber Swim for my sister:

I've just started so you can't see the design, but these are cute fingerless mitts with a wavy line pattern and some small cables on the back of the hand. I think they'll be beautiful in this yarn, which is a merino/silk/cashmere mix in a beautiful watery color. I'm also making these on these tiny needles that I got so I'll get to see how I like using them. I've just started so they feel a little awkward, but I think I'll get used to them after a while.

Finally, I got the first installment of the Oct-Dec 2019 Jimmy Beans Wool knitting club project:

This quater's project is a pair of slippers, and this month's installment was the soles:

I'm making these in my size, but if they turn out cool then I can give them to my sister, too, and make another pair for myself after Christmas.

Well, that's it for this time. We're seeing some winter here at my house today with a couple inches of snow and heavy winds. The change in seasons always take a little getting used to!

Nancy

Got Inclusivity Basted

Hi all -

Well, I did it! I got my niece's graduation quilt, Inclusivity, basted. I've been dreading this for a long time because I really hate basting large quilts. My house has gotten too cluttered to find enough floor space for a queen-sized quilt, and my back and knees can't handle it anymore anyway. So I had to come up with another way to get these quilts basted. A while ago I saw a hand-quilting frame on sale so I bought it specifically for this purpose. This was the first large quilt I've needed to baste since buying it, so this was the big test. First, I had to prepare the quilting frame. That took a while, but I got it together. Then I had to load the quilt. Of course, as with everything, my quilt top barely fit on the frame and the backing was too wide, but I was able to fold the backing and batting over on the sides leaving the area on the top free to be basted. Here you can see what one of the sides looked like in the middle of the basting:

Since I had the quilt on the frame, I decided to baste it using needle and thread instead of my usual safety pins. I used leftover bobbins of my regular sewing thread for the basting and made lines of stitches across the quilt. I hope you can see the thread in the picture:

The basting itself went relatively quickly once I got the frame together and the quilt loaded. My back was a bit sore when I was done, but nothing like what it would have been like if I had pin-basted it on the floor. And my knees feel great! Now I'll just have to start the quilting to see if the thread basting is strong enough to hold everything together and if the layers are smooth enough to avoid tucks on the back. But at this point I think this is going to be my go-to way to baste large quilts.

Otherwise, I've been working on my regular stuff. I made a couple more gift bags:

And have several more gifts ready for more bags to be made.

I ripped out the old version of my nephew's hat and reknitted it. For the new version, I switched to smaller needles to get a denser fabric, added an extra pattern repeat to make up for the smaller needles and switched the colors of the yarn in the colorwork since I hadn't noticed that I had gotten those backwards. I like the new version a lot better!

In the picture you can see the Bluetooth headphones that go with the hat. I hope he likes it! This is the Stronger pattern by Athena Forbes.

I also finished knitting the Odyssey Shawl by Joji Locatelli for one of my nieces.

I still need to block this shawl, which will open up all of the holes and make this shawl look really cool!

I also knit the February Hat by Kate Gagnon Osborn.

This hat will probably go to either my niece's fiancee or to my brother-in-law. I haven't decided yet.

I also started knitting A Little Lonely Cable hat by Joji Locatelli:

Originally, this was going to be for my niece's fiancee, but I decided that it was looking feminine to me so I've decided to give it to one of my other nieces instead. It'll look great on her!

Finally, I got my September installment for the Sunshower Shawl by Ambah O'brien and I spent an evening getting that part done:

You can't really see it in the picture, but the last couple of installments have added some interesting flair to the shawl that will really be cool after blocking.

Well, that's it for this time. Hopefully I'll have made some good progress on quilting Inclusivity by next time. But I also have to start collecting my supplies for my classes at Houston so we'll see how everything goes. I hope everybody is enjoying the shift into fall. The aspens are at their peak color at my house right now, so it's really incredible outside. It makes dealing with the shorter days a little bit easier!

Nancy