Swoon Quilt

Earlier this year, I showed you bunch of photos of the progress on my Swoon quilt, as I was putting the blocks together and constructing it.  Unfortunately, getting a finished photo of a full-size quilt is a lot harder than a scarf or pair of socks.  Just before our big snowstorm last week, I finally got my live-in photographer to take a photo of Swoon so I could finally show off the finished quilt to you.  I think it was worth the wait.

Truth, Love, & Laughter

In the last hours before the election below our border, I thought I would take some time to show off some art I made earlier this year.  Normally I consider my work to fall under the heading of “crafts” rather than “arts” but sometimes I feel like I straddle that line, and this is one of those times.

Bill Hicks was a satirist that I discovered a decade or so ago, a handful of years after his death from pancreatic cancer, at only 32.  I have watched and listened to nearly every bit of recorded tape that exists of Bill, and his is the voice in my head that guides me when I strive to be an intelligent, thoughtful, and compassionate human being.  Although I never knew of him when he was alive, I miss his presence in the world in a heart-wrenching way, and often wonder what he would have to say about so many of the issues we face, today.

Front of Quilt - click for bigger

Four years ago, as George W. Bush’s second term as President was coming to a close, I was inspired to make a quilt with Bill’s words on it.  I bought the fabric and planned it out, but once Barack Obama was elected, I felt (like so many others) a new day was dawning in world politics – that perhaps things might turn around, after all.  Perhaps people would no longer be content to let the wool be pulled over their eyes.

As this year’s Presidential election loomed ever closer, I see again the lies, the partisanship, the way the media tries to distract us all from the real issues by focusing on petty politics, shoddy statistics, and inaccurate facts.  I pulled out my old quilt design and slowly put it together, thinking of Bill and all of the things he would say, were he still here to say them.

Quilt Back - click for bigger

I hope that, in some way, his dream will be in your thoughts, if you are one of those going to the polls to vote.  I hope that you will think of a country where honesty and intelligence matters, where integrity is something of value, and where a voice like Bill’s can guide us.

If you want to see the stand-up routine that encompasses this quote, please go here.

“I left in love, in laughter, and in truth, and wherever truth, love, and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.” – Bill Hicks

Just in Time for Summer

As you can see from the pretty diagonal lines, I've finished the quilting on my Swoon quilt.  As planned, I just did simple straight lines, spaced out at alternating 1 1/2 inch and 2 1/2 inch intervals.  It turned out fairly well, with a minimum of stress on my part.  I am happy to see that the quilt is starting to look a little puffy between the lines, since the puffiness is one of the most pleasing parts of a finished quilt, in my opinion.  After I wash it, I'm sure the puff will be more apparent.

All that's left now is to cut the strips for binding, machine sew it to the quilt, and then hand finish it by sewing the binding over the cut edge.  Of course, the hand sewing usually entails sitting under the quilt on the sofa for hours, which I don't relish in this heat.  I'll think of something.

Past the Easy Part

I finished sewing together my quilt top on a few days ago - it went pretty quickly, since it was basically just a matter of sewing some thin sashing strips between the blocks.  Having finished that, it didn't take me long to sew the two backing pieces into one, and then of course I immediately laid out the quilt sandwich and started to hand-baste the layers together.

Last night I finished the basting and trimmed the excess fabric and batting.  I've decided to keep the quilting itself pretty simple, since I'm using a home sewing machine and have little patience for cramming quilts through the small throat space provided in mine.  I'm going to use masking tape to lay out basic diagonals on the top, and then quilt straight simple lines.  Hopefully I can do it without having a stress aneurism.

One For Good Measure

Since I had enough fat quarters in this collection to make ten quilt blocks, I decided to make a spare one.  This could have come in handy if I had somehow screwed up one of the first nine, since I'd have another one to use to finish the quilt top, but as luck would have it, I managed to make all of them without any major problems.  The tenth one will make a good pillow to set on top of my bed (albeit a pretty huge one.)

Having finished this one, I can start the construction of the quilt top.  Exciting times ahead!

The Last of the Quilt Blocks

This is the ninth and final quilt block (but don't despair, remember I'll still get to show off one more for a pillow.)  I took my time making this one, over a couple of days.  I didn't want to rush it, since I am so close to the end of this quilt top.  In the meantime, I also picked up a long-forgotten knitting project and found renewed interest in it, which also took away from the sewing time.

I can't wait to sew on the sashing and start putting these together!  It will probably all come together next week, when I get a couple of days off work.  Stay tuned!

Up Side Down Side

I got an early start on today's block, so I'm able to show this one off before I even have to go to work.  I also bound off my Cashmere Affection shawl this morning and laid it out to block - feeling very satisfied and accomplished, today.

This photo doesn't do the yellow justice.  It's really a lovely colour, with swirls of blue-green through it.  Very very pleased with this one.

Only two blocks left (one for the quilt and one for a pillow.)  I'm starting to see the end coming, which has me both excited and a bit sad.  I've really enjoyed putting each of these blocks together, and don't want it to end, except of course that I'll have a gorgeous quilt to use when I'm done.

Second Primary

A bit late in the day, but I did manage to finish the seventh block of my Swoon quilt tonight.  For those of you who didn't love the last block I did in primary colours: sorry, but I did it again.

I do like the way the light lemony yellow sort of fades into the background, making the bright red stand out so well.

The Rainbow Connection

I have a lot of stuff to do today: cleaning, baking, biking, hosting.  So of course I started out my day by doing something that wasn't on the Have To list - another block for the quilt.  This one is in a lovely deep indigo and a nice kelly green.  But then, you can see that.

I am particularly in love with this one because of the various rainbow colours swirling through that green fabric.  I made sure that it was the central fabric for this block, so that I could show it off by having a nice big square of it in the middle.  Perhaps it makes the green look muddy at a distance, but up close it's so pretty!

A Little Pizazz

Between working, the season finale of Game of Thrones, and some social knitting, it took me a couple of days to finish the fifth block for my Swoon quilt, but I managed to stitch the last of it together, tonight.

A combination of bright orange and fuchsia, this one perhaps clashes a bit, but I love these colours together.

This marks the halfway point for the quilt blocks (if you include the final one for a matching pillow.)  So far, so good.

Primary Impulse

For this quilt block, I threw together a couple of primary colours.  It's bold, but what can I say?  I have always loved the combo of a bright red and light blue.  For further evidence of my obsession with that colour combo, see here, or here, or even way back here.

I think it ties in with the blue of the previous block, but is definitely very different.  I would say I really love this one, but of course I could say that about all of them.

Swoon's Blue Period

The third block (still warm from the iron) has two colours that are more similar in value and in colour, for less contrast.  It makes for a more cohesive design, with neither element standing out more strongly than the other.  I still like it.

Block Two

Having made such a beautiful block for the quilt, yesterday, I was inspired to try another one today.  The one I made yesterday had the darker colour in the outer ring, which I think of as the flower petals of the block.  Today I wanted to try one where the darker of the two colours was in the central star and the spikes leading out from those points.  I pulled out one of my favourite colour combinations, a nice violet with a lime green, and with a few hours of sewing and ironing, I have a second block.  I'm very pleased with both the colour combination and with the way the design stands out.

Start Swooning

Today I had some time to myself and I decided to pop some episodes of Robin of Sherwood into the DVD player and start assembling the first block of my Swoon quilt.  Three episodes later I am the proud owner of one beautiful finished block.  Those of you following along may notice that I started with the center square of the quilt - it's certainly the most popular move on Hollywood Squares, and there's nothing wrong with it here, either.

Without a frame of reference in the photo, you can't really tell, but these quilt blocks are huuuuuge!  They are 24 inches square, which is why there are only nine of them (with sashing between) to make a full-size quilt.

One down.

Not Enough Hobbies For Ya?

I've been doing a lot of fibery crafting around here, but it's been a while since I showed off my mad quilting skillz.  All winter I spent a lot of time looking at the gorgeous variations quilters were making of the Swoon quilt pattern by Camille Roskelley.  You can see a number of them here on Flickr, or with a quick Google search.  There are so many beautiful ones, but I had something specific in mind for mine.

I spent ages looking for the right fabric - something bright and beautiful, with a lot of colour and not a lot of directionality.  Eventually I found just the fabric that would be perfect for my vision, called Tonga Gumdrop batiks.  Batiks are always stunning, and these ones in particular were really bright rainbow colours.  I ordered the fat quarters, and got myself some nice clean white for the background, and then sat down with a set of markers and some paper to plan out how to put the colours together.  Because there were 20 fat quarters, I ended up with the nine blocks for the quilt and one extra for a matching pillow.

A few days ago I folded up my weaving loom, Miss Bennett, to clear off my work table, and then got out the rotary cutter and mat.  While taking lots of breaks to knit my Cashmere Affection (to rest my poor back and watch various British tv series that I'm obsessed with, lately) I ironed and cut a bajillion pieces of brightly coloured fabric and stacked them up in nice neat little piles, all organized and ready to go.

Then, phase two:  after a couple of days of working at it (with ample knitting and tv breaks, mind you) today I finally finished cutting up the second set of a bajillion pieces:  pretty white squares and rectangles and strips for the quilt background.  Now I just have to get out the sewing machine and put them all together.  I'll keep you updated.

Futurella Quilt

I know it's been the better part of a year since you last laid eyes on the Futurella quilt -- what can I say? Some projects move slower than others, chez crafty.


I had the top sewn together by the summer, but didn't get around to adding the borders until fall, and then a couple of weeks back, I finally laid it all out and basted and quilted it and put the binding on. Finis.

It is already gone to the recipient, or I would have taken some more close up photos, to show the border fabrics (a deep pink animal print, a matching yellow animal print, and a greyish green hexagon print) and the pretty backing fabric (white with little pink polka dots.) It came together pretty well, and fluffed up nicely after a washing.

I'm not completely satisfied with the way the hexagons are laid out, in the end. I think I could have done some more rearranging to improve it. It's my own fault, for not leaving it up for a few days (or a week) while I was in the planning stages. It's always good to mull it over, rather than just deciding it's done. Or maybe I'm just a perfectionist.

An April Fool

I settled on a layout for the Futurella quilt, and yesterday, I spent an hour or two pinning and labelling the strips in order for sewing. Today I even sewed the first few strips together. Pretty exciting stuff, right?

In the meantime, I have been waiting impatiently for the March shipment from the Rockin' Sock Club. I have been haunting the forums, reading many peoples' comments on how lovely the yarn and patterns are, but nothing. Since we are coming up on a holiday weekend, I will likely not see the package until the middle of next week, since it didn't arrive today. I couldn't wait another moment, so I cast on a different pair of socks.


These ones are designed by Star Athena -- they are the second installment of the Socks for All Seasons club, and are called April Fool's Socks (ravelry). So far they are a basic toe-up stockingette sock, but soon enough they will take a very odd turn, indeed. The yarn, by the way, was a gift from a dear knitterly friend -- it is Araucania Multy in a bunch of perfect colours for me. I love how it doesn't really stripe or pool, but is really random. Love.

Into the Future

Having loosely sorted the Futurella hexagons by colour, I began putting them on the design wall, today. (By "design wall" I mean a piece of fabric that I have crookedly hanging from clothes hangers in my bedroom.) This is a photo of the early stages. I'm not sure if it looks like much at this point -- particularly because the fabric they are attached to is uneven and is even hiding some hexagons in the fold -- but I wanted to keep you posted on the progress, so there you have it. I have all the hexagons up and in place, now, but am mulling it over for another day or two, to decide if I want to move any, before I commit to it and sew them together.

These Boots are Made for Spacewalking

My two weeks off from work are almost over, and a part of me feels like I should have gotten more done. Fear not, the other part of me remembers that a vacation should be relaxing.

I have begun knitting a new lace shawl, which I am loving, but mostly I've been occupying my time with quilts. I've gotten another chunk of hexagons made for the Ingalls quilt, and am in the very early stages of two other quilts -- both machine applique quilts (sharp learning curve on that one, since I've barely done any before.)

What I am most excited about right now, though, is turning this fabric
into yet another One Block Wonder quilt. (As always, click photo to embiggen.)

The fabric is called Futurella, and as you can see, it is covered in pinup girls with a sort of 60s sci-fi twist. My favourite is the one with the bouffant, sitting in the chair. The last time I made one of these quilts with pinup fabric, it worked really well, so I thought I would give it another try. This one will be different, since it has more colour variation, although overall the print isn't any busier than the black and pink one was. With this sort of quilt, one never knows what will come of it, however, until you actually cut it up and sew it.

Today I finished sewing up the hexagon halves. (Those of you who have made this journey with me, before, will remember that the halves aren't sewn together until the final layout of the quilt is determined, so you'll have to forgive me the raw edges down the center of the hexagons, that make them seem asymmetrical.)

These are a few of my favourites -- I love the girl in the bottom left, and the one above it (how perfect is it that one of the motifs in the fabric is actually hexagons?) To see the rest of the hexagons (114 in total!) you'll have to wait a while, until I figure out the layout...

Obligatory Progress Post

I know I have been awfully quiet -- it's not because I have been idle, but because what I have to show isn't that interesting. My garter stitch cardigan has been progressing fairly quickly, but isn't very photogenic, yet:


And my Rockin' Sock Club socks are very Fraggley, but I am at the point where the second one looks much like what I've already shown you of the first:


The only exciting thing is that I finally put up my quilting frame (which takes up merely about half of the remaining floor space in my bedroom) and pulled the Fresh Squeezed Quilt out of oblivion. I had agonized long and hard over how to quilt this one (and am still not one hundred percent decided what I am going to do on some parts of it) but began with some little leaves. How cute are they.