Review: The About.com Guide to Quilting

Don’t be misled by the title. Janet Wickell’s The About.com Guide to Quilting: From Pattern to Patchwork--Creative Projects You Can Finish in Under a Week is more than book of projects. Only 6 of 15 chapters are devoted to specific projects.

The first 9 chapters are dedicated to quilting basics, covering fabric selection, block settings, sashing and borders, applique methods, rotary cutting methods, machine and hand piecing, foundation piecing and finishing the quilt. The projects in the last 6 chapters are:

• Miniature Paisley Stars Quilt
• String-Pieced Table Runner
• Quick and Easy Rag Quilt
• Rag-Edged Denim Purse
• Basket Wall Hanging and Throw Pillow
• Shades of the Past: A Vintage-Look Quilt (made with 9 patch and snowball blocks)

The book left me feeling it is too little about too much. At 288 pages, including 8 glossy color pages of the finished projects, it is much more text than many quilting books. It is impossible to cover such a wide variety of quilting topics in detail in a single volume.

The ratio of illustrations to text feels low for a quilting book. Most quilting books have many photos or illustrations and The About.com Guide to Quilting does not. In a few places, even after rereading, it seemed that an instruction was not quite correct. I’ve been unable to find any other reviews of this book to see if others feel the same. I searched the Internet for corrections to the book and did not find any.

The book has many web page addresses to find more information. It can be used as a guide to finding information on the about.com quilting website. It also has addresses for many other websites, all presented in the context of the topic being discussed. You can spend many hours browsing a fraction of the web pages mentioned in this book.

My Nemesis

I've been crocheting this cap for almost 4 weeks and it still isn't done. OK, I've not been crocheting on it all that time. Mostly it sits on the sofa mocking me.

I adapted my teen/adult ribbed cap pattern, using a larger hook and fewer stitches for the Bernat Super Stripes boucle yarn. Not a good choice. The boucle texture obscures the rib pattern and I've not been motivated to work on it.

I frogged 3 rows to fix a mistake last night and the boucle resists the frog stitch. Once crocheted, it wants to stay that way. I'm calling this hat my nemesis because it has so strongly resisted becoming a ribbed cap.

Website Updates - March 26, 2008

Just a few website updates this month. I updated some stale links. I didn't check the quilting links this month, but I did make updates on my Kansas City Stuff page and my Favorite Links page.

I rearranged the Quilting Related Sites page in the Cornucopia of Quilt Links section into subcategories of: General, Copyright Information, Sewing Machines and Antique / Vintage Sewing Machines. I added some treadle sewing machine sites and a few more pages on copyright.

Quilt Links

I've been catching up on my quilting magazines and have a couple of links to share.

The International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska has a new home, a brand new museum and research facility designed by architect Robert A. M. Stern. The grand opening of the new museum is scheduled for this Sunday, March 30, 2008. The museum is a 3½ hour drive from my house and I have at least one quilt buddy interested in visiting. I see a road trip in the future.

The Alliance for American Quilts presents Center for the the Quilt Online. The Alliance for American Quilts is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving and sharing our American quilt heritage. Center for the the Quilt Online features Quilters SOS (interviews with 100s of quiltmakers) and The Quilt Index (a database of historic and contemporary quilts) and much more.

You can spend hours surfing these websites and still not see everything.

Knoisy Knitters

Today was the official unofficial 3rd Thursday of the month meeting of the Knitting Club at the library. We arrived to find the tables in the activities/programs area covered with newspaper and art supplies for a children's program tonight. So we settled at a table in another part of the library.

We weren't there long before one of the library staff came and asked if we'd be willing to move. Another library guest had complained about the noise we were making. They cleared the paper and supplies off one of the tables and we happily settled in our normal spot to knit and chat.

Maybe if this happens again, the library will break down and put us on the official schedule for both the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month instead of just the 1st Thursday. I think part of the problem is they think they have to have a library staffer assigned to sit with us if we are on the official schedule. In the meantime, we dubbed ourselves the Knoisy Knitters.

Hats for Charity - The February 4

I'm a little late (OK, a lot late), but this is my February progress report on making hats for our local AT&T TeleComm Pioneers chapter to give to City Union Mission. I finished 4 more caps for a total of 9 hats/caps this year toward my goal of 48 hats. Remember, click on any photo for a larger view.

I knitted this cap, top to bottom, in Homespun. I started with an I-cord and tied a knot when the cap was finished. I kept knitting until I ran out of yarn, so there is a fairly wide turn up brim. My quilt group dubbed this the belly button hat.

This hat is done in half double crochet following my yet-to-be written Formula Hat pattern. The yarn is Lion Brand Jiffy, color name: grape. The green is a hairy worsted/bulky weight novelty yarn of unknown origin. Someone gave me an unlabeled skein and I don't remember who or when.

Another half double crochet Formula Hat, this time with a flared brim. The pink & black yarn is Bernat Super Stripes I bought on clearance.

This cap is knit in stockinette stitch with a ribbed brim. I knit this one bottom to top. The yarn is the pink & black Bernat Super Stripes again.

I started crocheting a ribbed cap in the pink & black Bernat Super Stripes. Over 2 weeks later, it's only half done. The boucle yarn and the crocheted rib isn't a good combination, so inspiration has fled. The yarn is hard to frog, so I should just buckle down and finish the thing. Some kid will love it.

Project Linus - Third Sunday Group - March

Our 3rd Sunday group met at JoAnns to make Project Linus blankets. The quilt top of the day was the bar quilt. We chose 5 strips of 9" wide fabric and cut each strip in half. Easy and quick. Four people stitched nine bar quit tops in less than 3 hours. I sewed 2 in an hour and a half. Jodie and Debby worked on projects they brought.

We did more than just make bar quilt tops. Eleven blankets were finished! I was starting to machine quilt one blanket, when Jenny arrived with 4 helpers. They started tying blankets. Then Laurie arrived with 2 more helpers. We haven't had that many people at our blanket group in a long time. Laurie warned Louise they were coming, so Louise had lots of blankets ready to tie.

Laurie and I also brought finished blankets (5 and 2 each), so 18 finished blankets went home with Louise to get labeled and delivered to hospitals. I neglected to take pictures of most of the blankets, so enjoy these 2 bar quilt tops.

Grand Sierra Knee Socks - Progress

I am slowly making progress on my Grand Sierra knee socks. I've started the decreases to shape the calf and they are fitting good. No more frogging has been needed.

I confess I haven't done much crafting the last couple of weeks. I've concentrated on reading those library books. I've read the 6 I brought home on February 23 and one of the HTML books. Last week I checked out 2 more computer books and a business book I requested before Christmas that finally became available.

Our Kansas City Project Linus chapter has a new coordinator, so I spent a few days last week getting the chapter website updated to reflect the change in command. Then I spent time experimenting with some of my new HTML knowledge. I'm not ready to redo the website, but I've got a nice start on the design.

Earlier Posts about these socks: Grand Sierra Knee Socks - 2½ Frogs Later, Grand Sierra Knee Socks - A Frogging We Go, Grand Sierra Knee Socks - Designing

Grand Sierra Knee Socks - 2½ Frogs Later

I'm finally making some permanent process on my Grand Sierra knee socks. This picture looks a lot like the one I showed you 2 weeks ago, but there is an important difference: there are 136 stitches to go around the widest part of my calf. Two weeks ago I only had 120 stitches and the sock was stretched too much for my tastes. In th last 2 weeks, I have:

• redesigned the pattern,
• frogged 2 complete pattern repeats (back to the ribbing),
• knit about 1½ pattern repeats
• frogged several rows on one sock because I missed the increases in one section
• reknit the frogged rows of the one sock and plus more on both socks
• redesigned the pattern again,
• frogged 4 rows on both socks to add more increases
• knit about ½ a pattern repeat
• redesigned the pattern a third time to make the increases over fewer rows,
• frogged 2 complete pattern repeats (back to the ribbing again),
• knit 2 pattern repeats

So, 3 pattern redesigns and 2½ froggings later, I finally have a suitable sock circumference for my calf. I'm going to continue knitting until the leg of the sock is about 4 to 4½ inches long before I start decreasing to taper the sock down to my ankle.

Earlier Posts about these socks: Grand Sierra Knee Socks - A Frogging We Go, Grand Sierra Knee Socks - Designing

I visited my mom last weekend and focused on knitting these socks for much of the time. I also read 200 pages of an easy XHTML book and visited Simply Fibers. I got a Simply Fibers gift certificate for Christmas and spent it and then some. I got 2 skeins of green Regia that were on sale (25% off). I decided to get some purple yarn and selected a skein of Tofutsies for anklets/calf-high socks and 2 skeins of Berocco Sox for knee socks.