Some Leisurely Progress

Things are still plugging away here at Chez Crafty. I've sewn all the little diamondy strips into even diamondier diamonds. I don't always like the patchwork look in quilts, but this really appeals to me. Maybe it's the colours... maybe it's how awesome (most of) my matched points turned out... Even a minor mismeasurement setback today didn't put me off for long. I've started sewing some sashing strips to the diamond blocks, and then I get to actually start to plan the layout of the blocks with each other. I have to say, I've been working on it for an hour or two a day for a week or so, and I'm glad I didn't try to piece it all in a weekend, as the pattern says one theoretically can. I guess I'm doing things at a slower pace than a quilt pro might.

Speaking of slower paces, the entrelac blanket is totally in hibernation, and even the lace shawl has been set aside for some more baby knitting that I can't show you yet. Baby season never ends.

Happily, I am content with my slowish pace, despite the many things I have in my queue. So nice to work without deadlines, isn't it?

And So It Begins Again

What -- did you think I'd take a while to rest before starting a new quilt? Guess again. I have at least three that are knocking at my brain every day, wanting desperately to get out. So in the last few days I sewed and I cut and here are a bunch of diamondy strips just waiting to be sewn some more. I'm sure you can see from this photo how bright and sunny and cheery this one will be. It puts me in a happy mood, just working on it. Having the new Fratellis album playing in the background doesn't hurt, either.

If Lampshades Wore Berets

then this picture would make more sense. I have draped the Mystery Shawl over this lampshade to try to get a decent photo of the third clue completed. The first two clues are above the top edge so you can't see them -- it's getting to be a good size. If you don't believe me, you can count the stitches: it's now up to 576 per round. Yikes. The clue I just completed only had 288 stitches per round (only!) so this upcoming one will go even slower than that one did, despite that little heat wave breaking, which means I can knit without sweaty little hands.

Having finished my Requiem quilt, my mind is racing with a million ideas for things I want to do next. This is probably partly from meandering through the many blogs I like to keep up with, since so many crafty people are doing so many creative things. There is such an abundance of inspiration in blogland, if only I had a corresponding amount of time and money. Meantime, the fabric for my next quilt is partly sorted, but not yet cut up into strips and/or triangles. Until I get some matching thread, I can't get much further than that, anyway. Watch for more pictures soon...

Requiem to a Requiem

Well, late last night, with sore fingers and red eyes, I finished the last stitches on the Requiem quilt. I am really happy with how the colour combination turned out. The blue on the edge is more of a teal, as you can see by the contrast with the blue of our bedsheets. Strangely, it isn't really the same blue as the blue in the flowers (despite the fabrics being from the same fabric collection.) Still, I think it goes very well. And the nice grassy green on the back is not something I'd always go for, but it looks great here, I think.

It's funny, actually -- as I was doing the handstitching of the binding to the back of the quilt, I was thinking about how it might be the most enjoyable part of the whole process. Then I realized that I'd been saying that about every step of the quilt, from fabric to sewing to arranging to quilting. I guess I just have to face the fact that I am a quilter, through and through.
As far as the binding goes, I normally just use a basic whipstitch to attach it to the back, but this time I decided to make it an opportunity to practice an applique stitch technique, since I have at least one applique quilt in my future. Perhaps you can see from this photo (click for ridiculously big) that the stitches in applique are practically invisible. (If I was smarter, I would have provided a comparison photo with a whipstitch on my last quilt. I'm not that smart.)


So the quilt has received a good review, having been slept under (or around or whatever) for one night so far. I don't think I ever mentioned that I used a cotton batting, with what is considered in the quilt world a 'high loft.' Let me just say that high loft cotton is not a particularly high loft, although it is nice to hand quilt and certainly makes a quilt that is a nice temperature, but not too warm for the summer. One day I am going to try a quilt with wool batting and see how snuggly and warm it will be for winter.

Having finished this one, I am beginning to consider the colour layout for the next, though I'm taking a day or two before I really tuck into it.

I am also knitting off and on, on the Mystery Shawl -- about 60% done the third clue, and today I downloaded the fourth, which is pretty huge. I'm really enjoying that, too, though obviously lace knitting takes a lot more concentration than handquilting does. Hopefully in a day or two I'll have the third clue finished and I'll try to manage a decent photo.

Thwarted by Summer

I never thought I'd say it, but it's too hot to knit. To knit lace, anyway. I find that my hands get all sweaty and then the fine lace yarn doesn't like to slide along the needles the way it should, and when the movements get too herky-jerky and strained I start to get frustrated and then it's not fun. The whole reason I knit lace is because it's fun. So I have to do my lace knitting while the weather is cool -- usually in the mornings and in the evening. Obviously I'd rather be doing it all hours of the day, but alas.

This means that my progress on the Mystery Shawl is slower than I'd like. I'm not quite half done the third clue yet, but it's looking great. Of course, lace never looks that great until it's blocked, but I have high hopes for this one. At this point, it's getting much bigger than the needles I have it on, so it's looking mostly like a big holey sack, but I've tried to show off a wedge of it so you can see the progress. Trust me, one day you'll be super-impressed, even if it doesn't look like much now.

In the meantime, I am so close to finishing Requiem that I can taste it. And it tastes great. I have a few more hours of handquilting and then I can take it off the frame and sew the binding around the front edge with the sewing machine. After that, I have to sit down on my sofa and handstitch the binding to the back. Ugh, that will be a challenge in this heat. Sitting under a quilt for hours is not exactly appealing. I'll have to brainstorm a solution to this one...

Hear the Lonesome Whippoorwill

We went to see Cowboy Junkies play tonight, downtown at the McDougall church. They're celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Trinity Sessions, which means playing the whole album start to finish (plus a few more recent songs for encores.) The Trinity Sessions album was one of my favourites throughout my formative years. I listened to it endlessly -- I feel like it's really a part of me -- and I distinctly remember sending it to more than one overseas friend, as an example of the phenomenal music Canadian musicians create.

My HLM got me the Trinity Revisited DVD/CD a while ago, which is amazing -- if you haven't seen it, you really should. Seeing them play live, however, was transcendent. They play masterfully, with such passion, and her voice is indescribably perfect, especially with the powerful acoustics in the church. I only got one blurry photo of Margo, which you see above, the stained-glass windows reflected in the glass behind her -- I wish you all could have been there with us.

Be Excellent to Each Other

George Carlin, 1937 - 2008

A Study in Circles

Clue 2, Chart D: done.

Squishy coppery yarn for Secret Baby Project.

Fuel for above.

I Love a Good Mystery

Franklin over at The Panopticon has something very important to remind us of, if you care to read it.

I have been despairing a bit about what to blog about for a couple of days. I've been quilting merrily away, beginning to see the end in sight for this one, which would make me sad, except that my mind is racing for the next one I plan to make (and the next, and the next.) But the quilt images (while beautiful) get a bit dull day after day for you, my loyal reader, n'est pas?

So you can well imagine my relief to find the Anniversary Mystery Shawl from Goddess Knits, while poking around Ravelry last night. By this morning, I had signed up -- signup is still open until June 30th, if you want to try it yourself -- and by this afternoon, I had finished a gauge swatch and knitted up the first clue.

If you aren't familiar with the concept of a Mystery Shawl, the basic idea is that each week, the designer releases a Clue, which contains a part of the pattern. You knit up that part and then wait for the next week's Clue, to see what will come next.
Until you finish, you really don't know what you're going to end up with. I did one of these last summer, and it turned out beautifully. I gave it away at the time, so I don't have a photo -- sorry. This one has another little twist -- the first clue gives you four options for a lace pattern to knit, and you get to choose which one you want. If this keeps up, it will be a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure shawl, with many different permutations of patterns to give endless possibilities. Stay tuned...

Checking In

Okay I know it's been incredibly boring for my (few) blog readers, while I plug away on both the quilting of Requiem and the knitting of the Entrelac lap throw. Here at Chez Crafty, things have been moving along quite nicely -- I've been really getting into the quilting, and enjoying the process, slow and steady. Every day I run my hands over the fabric of something I constructed, and I made hundreds of tiny little stitches to hold it together. I get to look at beautiful designs like this one, and make a little frame of quilting around each one to show it off. It's been very relaxing and gives me a real feeling of accomplishment.

The lap throw is a bit less appealing, at the moment. I have pulled an old Instant Gratification Project out of the pile to put to use my new skill at knitting backwards. It has been a very handy skill with the entrelac, since it means I don't have to turn the work to purl a wrongside row every eight stitches. I actually do the purling from the front of the work, left to right. I realized one day that I have another project which is perfect for this...

Ages ago, I started a Lizard Ridge lap throw (yes, another blanket project -- get the feeling I'm a chilly soul?) which I have been progressing on slowly, mostly due to the fact that I haven't bought all of the skeins I need, from the outset, but instead joined a yarn club that sends me a Kureyon skein every 6 weeks or so. Not only does it make the yarn colours more random than if I was choosing them deliberately, but it also seems more affordable than buying them all at once. Yarn Math. So here you see the first six completed blocks for my Lizard Ridge. I have two more skeins, so may do another block or two soon, but for now, I just wanted to give you a bit of eye candy to tide you over until I get something else to show you.

I hope you are progressing with your projects, and feeling some accomplishment as well...