I finished my Checkered Brick quilt top! I love the colors in this fabric pack. I can't believe it took me so many years to find a pattern that I thought worked well with the fabric.
Since I'm on a roll with sewing, I decided to work on quilt squares that I cut out from Dad's old shirts. I haven't found those quilt squares yet, but I did find a quilt top that I started about 12 years ago. Another project beckons!
Tollway Tatters met this morning, and while we chatted, I managed to finish a bookmark. I'm falling way short in my goal to tat bookmarks for all the seniors. I only have two finished, and I'll need to work at a much faster pace if I want to give each one a bookmark. Maybe I should just give each of them a button ornament!
I spent yesterday cutting out fabric for my next quilt top, Checkered Brick. The fabric is Heather Bailey's Freshcut from 2006. Daughter Alison and I fell in love with this fabric collection way back then, and we each ordered the fat quarter pack.
I have enough pieces cut for a queen size quilt, but I think I'm going to go ahead and cut up the remaining fat quarters so that I can truly mix it up. If I counted correctly, I have enough fat quarters for a queen size quilt and a throw. My goal is to have at least one quilt top ready for quilting by the time my finished quilts are ready to be picked up. I think I can do that!
We have Tollway Tatters this morning. I have to decide if I want to work on more button ornaments or a bookmark. Decisions, decisions!
I've been really busy sewing the past few days.
I finished a king size quilt top for daughter Joanne. I think this is my favorite combination of fabrics.
There were lots of squares left from the layer cake packs for the four quilts. I decided a throw would be nice. Most of the fabrics are from Joanne's quilt top, but there are squares from each of the kids' quilts. It's truly a family quilt top!
There were still squares left, so I pieced together a crib size quilt.
With all of those quilt tops pieced, I still had nine squares left. When this is quilted, it will be just the right size for a toddler to carry around.
Now it's time to start quilting!
Dave was off to his sister's yesterday. Mom was knitting, I was piecing Sophia's quilt top. I was very happy to complete this one in one day!
My plan for completing Kara's quilt top worked out perfectly! I even managed to lay out Sophia's quilt. I'm hoping to have time to sew tomorrow. They're simple quilt tops, but they sure are fun!
Kara's quilt top is truly half done!
Tomorrow is picture day at school, so I will go in early and then come back home. My plan is to piece the last four strips in the morning, then go in for lunch supervision, and then when I get home I can sew the strips together. We'll see if I have the energy to accomplish all that in one day!
I started piecing the strips for Kara's quilt yesterday afternoon. I didn't last very long. Six hours at a sewing machine is a lot!
Yesterday was move in day at college for granddaughter Lily. I remember my college move in day like it was yesterday. I was nervous, excited, and scared as I watched my parents drive away. I wonder if Lily felt the same?
This is the last dishcloth for daughter Carol. Now I have to start a set for daughter Alison.
I started a quilt top for grandson Janko today. I have half of the strips sewn together, and I'm hoping to have time to sew the other strips tomorrow. I'd love to have this quilt top finished this week, because I have three others to put together!
I've gone back to the diagonal garter stitch dishcloth pattern. It works up much faster than the last two patterns I tried. I have two more to make for daughter Carol, and then I'll start a set for daughter Alison.
School starts Thursday, and I'm looking forward to being the lunchroom supervisor again. I'm guaranteed to get my steps in every day!
This turned out to be a little too large for me, but someone will use it. I do like the that the seed stitch doesn't curl, but it seemed to take forever to knit. I think I may go back to the diagonal knit dishcloth. I have a lot of cotton yarn to use up!
I didn't really think I had enough green to knit this dishcloth, and I was right! Luckily I had a little of the gold yarn left. I still have a little gold left, so you'll probably see that pop up in a future dishcloth.
This is the Loganberry Dishcloth, a free pattern from Knitpicks. This pattern was not a no-brainer for me. I had to keep track of my rows with paper and pencil. It was also a bit time consuming. I enjoyed learning how to knit the bobbles, but they were a bit tedious to make with cotton yarn. I much prefer wool!
I started this Farmhouse Dishcloth last night. It was an easy knit, but I think I would prefer it as more of a square than a rectangle. That would be an easy enough adjustment.
This morning I went in to school to help daughter Carol put together some furniture that she purchased for her classroom. It's hard to believe that summer vacation is almost over and that school starts next week!
I've been knitting the traditional diagonal dishcloth for years, and I've never really been happy with the way they've turned out. I've tried a variety of dishcloth patterns over the years, and I think I've finally found a new favorite.
This is very similar to the traditional pattern with a few tweaks that help make nicer corners, and it can be knit with or without the holes. I found it at TheMakeYourOwnZone.com. This one was very easy to make, and I will make more. However, I think I might look up some more dishcloth patterns, just so I don't get bored!
We had our family cookout yesterday, and it was wonderful! It did rain all day, but we had fabulous food and lots of fun.
Daughter Andrea drove down from Minnesota, and we spent this morning visiting with her. After she left for home, we had a little bit of cleanup to do, but since everyone was so helpful yesterday we were able to finish up quickly.
It's been quite a while since I've knit dishcloths, but I promised daughter Carol some new ones. Luckily, dishcloths are pretty utilitarian, so mistakes don't really matter. It might take me a few tries to get in the groove of knitting with cotton again, but I'm up for the challenge!
I haven't done a lot of tatting in the past three months. When I have, I've made button ornaments. These were sitting in a dish waiting for finishing, which I did this afternoon. I'm not sure how many I've made this year, but I know I have plenty for Christmas gift giving!
A lot of my summer reading has been the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. I'm reading them in order of publication, and I really enjoy the stories. However, the author's use of incomplete sentences and misplaced commas just about drives me crazy!
I decided that today was as good a day as any to start tatting bookmarks. I turned to my favorite bookmark pattern, Curds and Whey from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. If I could only keep one of my tatting books, this would be the one. I get so much inspiration from it.
While reorganizing upstairs, I decided it was time to pull out my Great-grandma Morris's quilts. I think she must have made this as a bedspread, because it pretty well covers my queen. I know that our family's biggest beds were full size back then. Grandma Morris passed when I was 10 years old. I'm 71 now. So, I know this quilt is at least 61 years old.
Daughter Alison claimed the full size afghan. I sure did get a lot out of those skeins of yarn!
I know it's been more than three months since I last posted, but I needed a break from blogging.
We've been very busy. Our granddaughter Lily graduated from high school, and we traveled to Minnesota to celebrate with her. Our youngest daughter Joanne and her family moved from Minnesota to Georgia. So, a couple of weeks after traveling to Minnesota, we went the opposite direction to see Joanne's new home in Georgia.
Carol and Jon will be celebrating their first anniversary this weekend, and we decided it would be a good time to revive what used to be a yearly family cookout. That inspired me to finally get the upstairs organized. At long last, it looks like we have two guest rooms upstairs with a little bit of crafting supplies in sight. For years it has looked like a craft store exploded upstairs, and we'd just clear off the beds when family came to visit.
Now that I have my crafting supplies down to a more manageable size, I feel like I can get back into a routine.
I have been tatting, knitting, and crocheting, and I've finished quite a few projects, but I'm not going to try and play catch up with three months worth of projects. Instead, I will start fresh.
Today I received a gift of shuttles from a dear tatting friend in India, Madhur Dadlani. Aren't they beautiful? The light colored ones are steam beech wood, and the darker ones are sheesham or Indian rosewood.
While chatting with Madhur Dadlani online, I wound one of the shuttles with size 20 Lizbeth #167 Jungle Greens. I'm thinking of tatting bookmarks for the kids at school this year, and now seems like as good a time as ever to get started!