Lots of Progress on Pluma Morada

 Hi all -

I hope you are doing well! We're starting to get the winter weather here that we missed earlier in the year. We had a bit of snow last week. We expected more than we got, be we still got several inches. This week it looks like we could get as much as a couple of feet of snow. Here's hoping!!

I got a lot of work done on my Pluma Morada shawl, designed by Joji Locatelli, this week. 

Pluma Morada

I'm knitting this bigger than it is in the pattern because I have a lot more yarn than Joji used and I think it'll be wonderful in a larger size. Joji's pattern tells exactly how she made it and encourages you to make it larger if you want to.

I also picked an old quilting project back up again. This one is Wild Women Don't Get the Blues designed by Karen K. Stone. I don't believe the pattern is available anywhere, but it is the cover quilt for this collection of quilts for EQ8. I was able to paper piece nine units this week.

Wild Women Don't Get the Blues

These units are sewn together with a central square to create a block that looks something like this:

Wild Women Don't Get the Blues - Block Layout

I have 19 more of these units to piece before I can start constructing the blocks. These units are a bit slow to make because I make them one at a time and stand up after each seam to iron the piece and cut the fabric to prepare for the next seam. I could streamline this by piecing multiple units at once and putting an iron and rotary cutter next to my sewing machine, but I like to pick the next fabrics after finishing the unit and standing up after each seam to keep from getting stiff. My plan is to use a solid fabric, probably a brown, for the center of each block and then do some hand embroidery in that square. 

I've also continued to play around with EQ8, the quilt design software that I just got access to again. One of the things I've been working on is getting my idea for the backing for my Jungle Magnolia quilt on paper.

Jungle Magnolia Backing

The idea is to have a checkerboard that mirrors the checkerboard on the front, using the same fabric. Then I will scatter stars from the Haystack Cookies pattern from QuiltWx around the back. We were given the Haystack Cookies pattern in our Jungle Magnolia Block of the Month kit so I thought it would be fun to put them here. I'll probably play around with this a little more before piecing it, but this gives me a good idea of what I want.

Nancy