Autumn in the Rockies!

 Hi all -

Autumn is here and the Aspen are showing their beautiful colors!

Fall Colors

I wish the photo showed the glow in the colors. They are so incredible!

I've continued to work on the baby quilt for my great niece who is due in November. This quilt is from the Spring Baby Quilt designed by Pat Bravo in the Bernina WeAllSew blog. I've finished most of the quilting on the quilt.

Modern Flowers Baby Quilt

Each section of the quilt has a different background fill in it.

Modern Flowers Baby Quilt - Flowers Quilting

Modern Flowers Baby Quilt - Nemeshing

Modern Flowers Baby Quilt - Meandering

Modern Flowers Baby Quilt - Paisley Quilting

Modern Flowers Baby Quilt - McTavishing

Modern Flowers Baby Quilt - 3's and E's Quilting

Although some of the quilting is pretty bad, overall I'm very happy with it so far. The 3's and E's quilting is especially bad, but luckily it doesn't matter because the texture is good and nobody else will know what I was going for. I needed to practice this design on paper in an odd-shaped area because I kept getting confused about how to get over to the next space I wanted to quilt. This demonstrates two good lessons about free motion quilting -- practicing on paper is a good way to learn how to move around in the design and in the end it doesn't matter if your quilting is "right" as long as it provides the right amount of texture and you do it consistently, mistakes and all. Here is a view of the back with the quilting so far:

Modern Flowers Baby Quilt - Back

I just have three more areas to go! I look forward to getting it finished so I can soak out the marking lines to let the texture shine!

I also have a finish this week. I was able to complete my Scarfscape designed by Laura Nelkin. I also blocked the scarf, but I didn't take the time to pin it out to open up the lace.

Scarfscape - Blocking

Scarfscape - Close-Up

The lace would be more even and open if I had pinned it, but I'm really happy with it the way it is and it feels wonderful around my neck! The bead placement in this design is wonderful. It enhances the knitting design, but also provides weight in the right places to make it wear well.

I also made a lot of progress on my Kalme Throw designed by DeBrosse. It looks like I've doubled the size of the blanket since last time.

Kalme Throw

These stitches are small, so it takes a long time to make progress on this blanket! But it's moving along!

Finally, I started a new project. Laura Nelkin is having her annual Mystery Knit-A-Long (MKAL). This year her design is called Into the Hoods. It's a collection of three different hoods (a balaclava, a dickey style and a hooded scarf), each of which can be knit in one or two colors. I picked out yarn this week and knit the gauge swatch.

Into the Hoods

I plan to make the one-color balaclava version of the hood. I've had this yarn in my stash for a long time. It's a bit hard to knit, but I think the resulting hood will be beautiful! Hopefully there won't be too many fancy stitches in this project!

Nancy