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.

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.

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...

After Years of Anticipation

I know you're probably all waiting to see how I have dressed up Miss Bennet for her inaugural project, but sadly, I am still waiting for a boat shuttle, some bobbins, and a sley hook, before I can get started. (Fear not, they are on the way.) Instead, I have occupied myself with some quilting, finally bringing the Wiz quilt back from obscurity and making some good progress on it. I have also dug out an old pattern from Knitty and started it.

Clapotis is a knitting blog classic.
There are over 10 000 of them on Ravelry. Seriously. Ten thousand. When I was still a wee beginner at knitting, I wanted to make this so bad, but the price of the Lion & Lamb it calls for was just too steep, yet that yarn is so beautiful that I couldn't bear to knit the pattern in anything less. Enter Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They have a yarn called Luscious Single Silk that is pretty similar to the Lion & Lamb. When I saw the colours in my Rockin' Sock Club skein, I knew I wanted to use it for Clapotis, so I ordered some of the Luscious Single Silk in that colourway.

I am nearly done the increase rows and ready to start the straight knitting. And loving every damn minute.