August is UFO and Scrap Busting Month

I officially declare August 2008 is UFO and Scrap Busting month. I've made a little progress this year on finishing some UFOs and using some scrap yarn and fabric, but not as much as I'd like.

I reported yesterday that I've already started clearing some of the clutter (i.e., unfinished and unstarted projects) in my quilting area. I've also worked on some crochet clutter. I had 2 spiral skull caps that I started and ran out of yarn before reaching the brim. I really didn't want to frog them, but after a year and a half I decided there was no other option.

The picture below shows the unfinished teal cap before frogging. The royal blue cap was slightly larger than the teal one before frogging. I combined the royal blue yarn with other blues to create a striped hat.

Here are the projects I want to complete during August.

1. Southwest Pottery Quilt - quilt, bind and add hanging sleeve. This has been basted for machine quilting for 3 years.
2. Scrappy Hearts quilt top - add borders to finish the top. I finished sewing the blocks together nearly 2 years ago. This was started in our now disbanded Quilts from Cornerstone group. I plan to give the top to Jeanine for her Quilts from the Bluffs group to finish and donate.
3. A hat for charity using some small yarn balls.
4. A hat for charity using some of the remaining Red Heart Symphony.
5. Assemble a Granny's Daughter afghan. I have a copy paper box nearly full of motifs sent to me by many generous people several years ago for a Granny's Daughter Afghans for Project Linus project. It's been 3 years since I assembled one, so this is overdue.
6. Chef Dish Towel - finish the embroidery.
7. Make 2 quilt tops from my scrap drawer. I seem to create scraps than I use. I'll head over to Quiltville to get some inspiration from Bonnie's great scrappy designs.
8. Scrappy Squares quilt - turn the top into a finished Project Linus Blanket.

Anyone one want to join me and reduce the craft clutter?

Interwoven Leaves Socks

I cast-on my current sock project on July 5. I've not worked on it much the last 2 weeks, so progress has slowed, but not stopped. I'm currently doing the increases for the gusset and have 8 or 10 more rows to do.

The yarn is Regia 4-ply, color number 1035. Each of the plys is a different color: green, blue, yellow and magenta. The green seems dominant to me and I was inspired by Julie Huston’s Orange Leaf Socks to create socks with a leaf design. I'm using size 0 (2 mm) needles with a gauge of about 10.5 stitches and 14 rows per inch.

I’m knitting toe-up, both socks at once, Magic Loop style. Basic sock pattern is Wendy’s Fingering Weight, Toe-Up Socks with Gusset and Slip-Stitch Heel. I'm adding a leaf design to the instep and leg. I added 2 stitches to the stitch pattern from the Orange Leaf Socks to create a 12 stitch repeat (instead of 10 stitches).

Quilting Frenzy

I've been in a quilting frenzy for the last 10 days, quilting for a hour and half or more most days. The relatively simple quilt tops for Project Linus make up pretty quick, so there's been a lot of output compared to my normal mode of operation.

I've decided that August will be UFO and scrap busting month, so I've been working to finish the projects I brought home from our last 3rd Sunday Project Linus meeting. But I didn't stop there.

This is and Easy X quilt top. There were 2 different colors of background squares - white and a pale yellow check. I arranged them to create a secondary pattern of 2 white pinwheels and red & white hourglass blocks in the corners. In retrospect, I could have done 4 white pinwheels instead. I made it up as I went, not uncommon for me, and what's done is done.

Most of the squares for the triangles were cut last summer for our 3rd Sunday Project Linus group. Unfortunately, most of the group wasn't enamored with the long diagonal seams and I had a bunch of squares left. The left over squares kept getting moved around my quilting area and occasionally I made a top with them. This is the last of those squares, so one less thing is cluttering my quilting area. Yesterday, I started a Yellow Brick Road quilt top using the fat quarters I bought at Margie Pearls, something else that's cluttering my quilting space.

How to Rip a Seam

The red fabric is a directional print with Christmas stockings. I managed to sew some combinations I decided should be different, so I had some ripping to do. There are many ways to rip out a seam, but I didn't want to stretch the bias edge.

I used my seam ripper to cut every 4th to 6th stitch on one side of the seam. Then I firmly, but carefully, pulled the thread on the other side and the stitches just popped out. The short bits of thread between the cuts are a little tedious to collect, but it is a reasonably quick and easy way to rip a seam without stretching it.

A Finished Project Linus Blanket

I finished the quilt that Jodie prepared for quilting at our Project Linus group last Sunday. It's the same design as the tops she brought to our June meeting.

I quilted the ditches between the blocks and around the borders and quilted both diagonals through the blocks. To finish, I did a zig-zag through the outer border. The photo below gives a closer view of the blocks and shows the cozy pink flannel back.

I Finally Did It

Look what the mail carrier brought me today! EQ6. I'm probably the last quilter in the world to own EQ. I've planned to buy Electric Quilt ever since EQ6 was released a year and a half ago. I saved Amazon.com gift certificates until a $50 gift certificate on July 7 finally gave me enough to buy EQ6. So why did I wait another 2½ weeks to order?

Now I have to install the software and learn to use it. I think it's the learning part that made me put off buying the software. I tried to use Quilters Design Studio several years ago and never learned enough to use it well. I think I'm afraid that learning EQ will be too time consuming for my attention span.

I think I'll spend some time reading the manual before installing the software. Wish me luck.

Four Patch Quilts

Cut some 4½ inch strips and 8½ inch squares and make a quick 4-patch quilt. Or 2 or 3.

The quilt top above and the one below are made from the kit I started stitching at our Project Linus group last Sunday. Almost. The kit only had 4 border strips, which I used on the quilt top above. I dug into my Project Linus stash to create a border for the quilt top below. Which border do you like best?

Each fabric strip for the 4-patch blocks was eight inches longer than needed for the 20 blocks. An extra 40 by 4½ inches of 2 fabrics. Too much to waste. With a little extra piecing it was enough for 4 more 4-patch blocks. Or half of 8 blocks.

I went digging thru the stash and found a cute frog print with lots of primary colors and a red-orange tone-on-tone. Yellow in an appropriate shade was slightly harder, but I found a nice pale yellow. 4-patches with 4 different fabrics.

There are only 16 blocks in this quilt top. From 2 strips of the frog fabric, I got 8 squares and two 7 x 8½" rectangles. Too frugal to waste half a strip to cut 2 more squares, I split the rectangles, cut 4 light yellow rectangles, and sewed the rectangles to the ends of the rows. I still had scraps, but less than the kit had. And I created a pretty great top. What do you think?

Hats for Charity - The June 3

Project: Hats for City Union Mission from local AT&T Telecom Pioneers.

Personal Goal: Make 48 hats in 2008.
Hats made in June: 3
Hats made Jan. thru June: 27

This report is really late. I was getting really tired of working with the Red Heart Symphony and only made 3 hats in June. With all that fuzz it's hard to see the stitches and the fuzz closes up the holes and makes it hard to get the crochet hook in.

Cap # 1 is a "Formula" hat made in half double crochet with a ribbed brim of front and back post double crochet stitches. The yarn is Red Heart Symphony. The main color is magenta with a tundra stripe.

Cap #2 is a spiral skull cap. It's worked in half double crochet with front and back post double crochet. I'm writing up the instructions. Don't hold your breath, but maybe I'll get it ready for the website before summer is over. The yarn is Lion Brand WoolEase, color tundra, with the brim in magenta Red Heart Symphony. I used every bit of the WoolEase, which was a partial skein left from another project.

Cap #3 is a modified version of my waffle weave cap pattern, which you can find on the patterns page. I did a k2, p2 ribbing and I did 3 rows of k2, p2 and 3 rows of p2, k2 for the pattern stitch. The yarn is Red Heart Symphony in the color redwood. This is a great color for a teen boy or a man. The fuzzy yarn obscures the stitch pattern, but it's still more visually interesting than stockinette stitch.

My July hat output is already at 4. I found a way out of the June hat slump; I put the rest of the Symphony away for a while.

Project Linus - Third Sunday Group - July

It's that time of the month again. No, not that time! It's time for a report on our third Sunday Project Linus group that met 2 days ago.

Our group was smaller this month. Lucille is on vacation and Christy's house sold and she's moved far away. Louise brought some 4 patch and some rail fence kits to work on. Jodie brought a quilt top, layered it with batting and a flannel back, and got it ready to tie or quilt.

I brought an unfinished top and turned it into a finished top. This is a small sample of the Scrappy Squares Quilt on our KC Project Linus website. Scroll down to the Quilts section on the patterns page. And yes, these blocks are the ones I made over 2½ years ago to illustrate the instructions.

After adding the borders to the Scrappy Squares top, I pin-basted Jodie's quilt and packed it in my bag to bring home to quilt. Then I started one of the 4-patch kits, which I also brought home to finish. I'll share pictures in a few days when I finish them.

Two women came to deliver some quilt tops and finished blankets and stayed to tie a couple of quilts. I managed to take pictures of a couple of the quilt tops they brought. (Sorry, I didn't get names. If you're reading this, please leave a comment or use the email link in the left column to let me know who you are so I can give proper credit.)

Some of the tops used the super-sized nine patch pattern from Quiltmaker. Colorful large print fabrics combined with tone-on-tone prints make eye-catching and kid-pleasing quilt tops.

Leftover fabric from the super-sized nine patch tops was used to make this top.

Debby brought this quilt made with hexagon blocks for show and tell. She made it with a kit from one of other Project Linus blanket groups and will be turning it in at that group. The instructions said to square off the top and bottom, but it's a lot more fun with the hexagon points intact.

How Do You Help Others?

A recent website visitor (another Susan) emailed me that I helped inspire her to put her crochet hook to work helping babies. Her boss's sister is pregnant and the boss had a terrific idea. Susan and her boss are making 30 pairs of booties, to be filled with candy, for baby shower favors. The boss wrote a cute poem to tell guests they can't take the booties home, because they will be donated.

What great ideas do you have for helping others? I make blankets for Project Linus and hats for a local homeless shelter. I just volunteered to demonstrate the one-seam flying geese and 3-dimensional bow tie blocks at a Quilts from the Bluffs quilt retreat in September. My third Sunday Project Linus group got so excited over these blocks, I'm sure the Quilts from the Bluffs members will love them too.

Review: 101 Fun-to-Quilt Pot Holders

Do you want to make potholders or are you just looking for some interesting quilt blocks? 101 Fun-to-Quilt Pot Holders by Trice Boerens is full of clever blocks.

101 Fun-to-Quilt Pot Holders contains an assortment of pieced and appliquéd blocks, arranged by theme. Some blocks are embellished with embroidery. The themes include:

• Through the Window,
• Creative Cook,
• Town Square,
• Bright Ideas,
• All in a Row,
• Rays of Sunshine,
• Checkered Past,
• English Garden,
• Organic Garden,
• Falling Leaves,
• Dramatic Impact,
• American Pride,
• Fascinating Twirls,
• Down-Home Fun,
• Spinovation,
• Fresh Fruit,
• Butterfly Beauties,
• Spring Florals,
• French Countryside,
• Fruit Baskets,
• Make Mine Diamonds,
• Time Will Tell,
• A Little Fishy,
• Lazy Hazy Days, and
• Holiday Fun(i.e., Christmas & winter)

The book has templates for almost all block pieces, including squares, rectangles and triangles. If, like me, you prefer to rotary cut your pieces without templates, you’ll have to measure templates to determine cutting sizes.

Most blocks finish to 8 inches squares, but there are a few rectangular blocks that finish to 10" by 7" or 7½" x 9". WARNING! These are not blocks for a brand new quilter. Most of the blocks have at least 15 to 20 pieces in an 8 inch square. Many pieces finish to 1 inch wide or less. Know how to cut precisely and stitch an accurate ¼" seam before attempting most of the designs in this book.

Whether you want to make a few potholders for a gift or are looking for blocks for a quilt, you’re sure to find inspiration in 101 Fun-to-Quilt Pot Holders.

Mini-Quiltathon Results

After 5½ to 6 hours of quilting over 2 days, I have results. I would have liked to get more done, but if I ever finish my "to do" list the world would probably stop turning.

I quilted the one-seam flying geese quilt. I did all the quilting with my New Home (aka, Janome) Memory Craft 8000 and a walking foot. I quilted all the ditches, then did a zig-zag in the borders of background fabric around the geese. I finished with a curve (half of a cable) in the outer border. With all the geese, the ditch quilting took a while. I know it would have been faster to do free motion, but I'm more accurate with the walking foot.

I sewed the half-square triangle blocks together in the barn-raising layout yesterday. Today I added a lavender border. I layered the top with a lavender flannel back, stitched and turned, pillowcase style. I left out the batting for a light-weight summer Project Linus blanket. I need to stitch in some of the ditches tomorrow morning to hold the layers together a bit and it will be ready to turn in at out Project Linus meeting tomorrow afternoon.

Ready to Quilt

I'm ready to quilt. The baby gifts are all done and my mom is back home after a 2 day visit. I trimmed these half-square triangle blocks to 6½ inches just before Mom left this morning and have them on my design wall ready to stitch. I think this is a barn raising setting. I'm too lazy to verify that just now. It's also another way to use part of the never ending package of purple squares.

I spent a few minutes pin-basting the one-seam flying geese quilt after my mom left. It needs a few more pins and it is ready to quilt. I want to finish it before our Project Linus group this Sunday. Knitting club met this afternoon, so I didn't have time to finish the pin-basting.

Today and tomorrow are JudyL's July Quiltathon. With no club meetings, house guests, or errands tomorrow, I should be able to quilt for 2 or 3 hours. I think that qualifies as a mini-quiltathon.

More Baby Gifts

Babies are pretty special. My niece's baby-to-be will be my mom's first great-grandchild, so that makes him extra special. In addition to the quilt and hand-knit socks that I delivered on July 5, I've made a few more things that I'll send to the baby shower via my mom.

On the left are 2 hooded towels, 1 dark green and 1 off-white. The bottom layer on the right side is 2 burp pads. On top of the burp pad is a bib (off-white terry with a flannel back) and 3 wash cloths.

I used McCall's pattern #6647, which I purchased in 1981, for the towel and bib. The washcloths are about 9 inches square and the burp pads are about 10" by 18". The burp pads are dark green terry on one side and flannel on the other. The two layers are serged together around the edges. The flannel is the same fabric as the back of the attic windows quilt.

I had trouble finding good quality terry cloth. I found the off-white at Hobby Lobby. The dark green terry was a thick bath sheet. Terry cloth sheds when you cut it. I expect to be cleaning up terry crumbs for weeks.

I couldn't resist buying this baby layette the last time I was at Costco. There's a sleeper, hat and receiving blanket.

My mom is visiting. This morning she finished the ripple baby afghan she's been making. She used Baby Bee Sweet Delight Twist Yarn. The color name is bare blue. The baby shower is Saturday, so we're both finishing gifts just in time.

One Less UFO, One Baby Gift Delivered

The attic windows baby quilt is done and delivered. I bought the fabric nearly 4 years ago. After sewing blocks together wrong, the quilt was nowhere near finished for the originally intended occasion. It wound up in a pile of unfinished projects. I finally finished the top last summer.

My niece and nephew-in-law are expecting a baby boy next month and I decided to turn this UFO into a baby gift. Last week, I diligently quilted with my trusty sewing machine, finishing late Thursday evening. I attached the binding on Wednesday, before quilting the centers of the green squares. I hand-stitched the binding to the back over the next 46 hours, finishing early early Friday to celebrate the 4th of July.

Quilting Design: The quilting design is fairly simple. The batting is Warm & Natural, so close quilting was not needed. I quilted all the ditches. Then I did a simple cable in the blue border. In each of the green print squares I quilted a wavy loop.

I used a colorful flannel print on the back.

This close up gives a better view of the critters on the quilt back and if you look closely you can see some of the quilting lines.

Dimensions: The quilt is about 60 inches square. The window panes (green print) are 6 inches square and the individual blocks are 8 inches square. The red orange border is 1¼ inch wide. The blue border is 4 inches wide. The binding is about 3/8 inch wide.

I gave the quilt to the parents-to-be at our 4th of July weekend gathering last Saturday. It won't be the only handmade blanket they get, but it's probably the largest. It's a good size for a baby to crawl on.

Earlier posts that included this quilt: Attic Windows Quilt Top, Quilting Done and In Progress

Baby Socks - Completed Cuteness

The ribbed baby socks are done! I finished them the evening of July 4 while my mom and I watched No Reservations on DVD. I presented them to my niece and nephew-in-law on Saturday. The women in the family all declared them cute. The men didn't say much.

For the design details for these socks, please read the previous post: You Can Say "Aww".

You Can Say "Aww"

Isn't this baby sock cute? And fast to knit. I've gone from one end of the socknitting extreme to the other - knee socks to baby socks. I started them about 10 days ago and expect to finish the second one this weekend. Everyone at knitting club admired the finished sock today. The recipient of the socks will be the baby my niece and nephew-in-law are expecting in August.

The yarn is Tofutsies left over from making socks with the Tidal Wave pattern. I'm using the Just Your Basic Baby Socks pattern by Patti Pierce Stone. Sort of. I'm using fingering weight yarn and 2.25 mm needles and 40 stitches to produce a 3 month size. I also added ribbing on the leg and instep so the sock will be harder for baby fingers to remove and will fit for an extra week or two as the baby grows.