I've been in a "finish it up" mode over here this summer. I shipped three quilts off to be quilted this spring and I finally got around to binding them. The pattern for this hat (and yarn) I bought back before Christmas maybe, and the same with these gloves! Nearly everything you see here is a Christmas gift for someone this year. I started early and had a plan and I'm going to be thanking my past self in about a month when all I have to do is wrap!
The pattern and yarn for this hat was pretty interesting. I loved the idea and it seemed like a fun knit, but I didn't LOVE how it turned out in the end. It's fine - but the little color bursts seem bulky. I'm hoping a quick soak will help even it out but we'll see. It's cute on! I think I'm harder on myself than most wearers will be.
This is the one project I'll be keeping for myself out of this whole post. We have a summer quilt that we use once we take the winter duvet off. I love it, it's a beautiful 16 patch quilt that features Liberty of London fabric. But, last fall I decided we needed a second quilt for the bed so we could swap things out every now and again. This big quilt will live in our room. The harsh sunlight washed out the light greens of the quilt so it's a little hard to see here but it's a beautiful combination of minty greens, beiges and moss colors.
As Kristy (my quilter) was putting it on the long arm she called me to confirm which way the quilt would lay (did I want in longer or wider) because the quilting pattern I'd picked (these clam shells) is somewhat directional. It's meant to be displayed like mermaid scales (either up or down). I said to make it wider than longer because I hate flighting over the blankets at night....but, when it arrived home I knew I'd made a bad choice. I should have had her send it back to me so that I could add a border to make it longer, but I was feeling lazy and said "just quilt it". When it arrived home I tossed it on our bed and knew I needed to fix it. I wanted to add about 10 more inches to the length, but it was already quilted so, I had my work cut out for me.
I let this project sit in the basement all summer because I was overwhelmed by the idea of fixing it - a process I've never tried and had no idea how to start. A few weeks ago I decided it was time to finish up these projects and get them off the pool table (yes, the pool table is my official quilting station). I took the whole pile to the quilting store in Hampshire. Spent a half hour or so talking to one of the nice ladies who worked there and left armed with a plan! I added a top and bottom border (adding 8 finished inches) using the quilt as you go method. She even convinced me to do the quilting myself on my machine - something I've all but given up on because I'm never happy with the end result. You can see the boarder in the above photo (with the slight wavy line on it). I DID THAT! I was pretty proud of myself and am really happy with the end result. I learned something new AND finished a long overdue project. That was a good day!
Lastly, I finally finished up these two quilts, same patter, different color ways. I made the stained glass (bright colored) one first and I love it so much I decided to make it again in another color way. These quilts were not easy. They are made up of tons of half square triangles which aren't a hard block to make but with all the different color combinations it was quite a process. I trimmed each and every one of these 3x3 squares to make sure they were perfect before sewing them together. I am SO very proud of these two. The points line up perfectly on most of my squares. It's probably the most careful I've ever been when making a quilt and the end result is stunning.
This quilt is headed to my friend Sue. She was my old boss when I worked at Sears and she, Jennifer and I have kept in touch all these years. We try to have breakfast once a month or so, though, in fairness I'm the one who makes scheduling hard. We always seem to do pretty well during the winter months but once it's warm out, we're gone most weekends. In any case, the colors of this quilt just say "Sue' to me so she'll be getting this one when we get together for the holidays. I'm hoping I can squeak one more quilt in here this fall for Jennifer. I've got it mostly together already actually - but I'm not sure if Kristy will be able to get it back in time for me. Fingers crossed I can get some time behind the machine this weekend and get that in the mail to her next week!
I love the quilting pattern I picked for this quilt. To me this quilt reminds me of summer and ice cream. When I told Kristy what I was looking for she sent me this pattern as a suggestion. It wasn't listed on her website so I'm guessing she bought it just for me (which was so nice of her). I love the way this one turned out and I hope Joey does too. I've yet to make her a quilt through all these years so I hope she loves it when she opens it on Christmas.
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