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...

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...

Requiem for a project

Well, I took a few days to complete the "day's work" I had left on the quilt top, but it's all said and done, now... Here she is, in all her glory:


As always, I was surprised and delighted at every turn -- sewing the hexagons together in their final arrangement always sharpens and focuses the whole design. I had been somewhat concerned that it was just a big crazy blob of hexagons, but it really came together and confirmed my instincts on arrangement. (Though admittedly, there are a couple that I would love to shift around to perfect things -- good thing I'm not a perfectionist or I'd probably pull out the seam-ripper and get to work.) Then I started sewing on the borders and thought they were going to be a disaster, and detract from the whole thing... but again, my instincts were confirmed, and it turned out really nice, I think.

I have named it Requiem, partly because of the dark fabrics lending it a funereal tone, and partly because I was listening to Mozart's Requiem on a loop for most of the making of it. (80's pop for the rest, but I can't really name it after Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody, can I.)

So that's probably all you'll see of her for a while -- my quilting frame is on the way (yay birthdays!) but it will be months until I have the hand-quilting finished (with the last quilt I made, I really pushed myself to finish it as quickly as possible, and it took a month or two to complete; this one I plan to do more leisurely, so it will likely be end of summer or autumn before I get to the finish line.)

For the record, the backing fabric will be a nice mossy green, and the binding will be a lovely blue, which hopefully will bring out the blues of the quilt.

I'm really happy with this one, but now I have to get back to my knitting...