Knitting Update

It’s such a relief to have all the quilt market deadlines behind me.  And while many other designers are packing or arriving at quilt market, doing schoolhouse sessions, or preparing for Sample Spree tonight, I am home, breathing a sigh of relief.  All the deadlines are over for a little while and I am leisurely making a table runner for my bedroom.  I don’t remember the last time I did that!  Carter is just finishing up his nap, so I won’t get it finished today, but that’s okay.  He is switching himself from taking two long naps a day to one shorter one.  He seems to be adjusting to it just fine – it’s me that is having issues!  I really got a lot done during those naps.  He isn’t crabby about it at all, just as busy and happy as ever.  It’s not like I don’t want to be with him more, I just like to give him lots of attention while he is up and not have to sit at the computer, sewing machine, etc.  I love his timing though – he waited until I was done with my deadlines to switch up my schedule!

Over the last few months or so, I have been trying to finish up a bunch of unfinished projects.  Several are knitting projects that have been on the needles for quite a while.  I think this first project has been going for about a year.  I am so glad to finally have it finished!  (that goofy expression on my face might have something to do with my annoyance over how long this took me).

The yarn is something I have used twice before and I liked it in this project as well.  It’s called Dream in Color Smooshy.  The color is Lipstick Lava.

It’s hand-dyed which makes for a nice depth of color, with slight variations.  I much prefer the weight of the Smooshy to the DIC Classy.  In my experience, it blocks much better and isn’t quite as stiff.

The pattern is called  Chambourcin – designed by Ruth Garcia-Alcantud of Rock and Purl.  I think the only mod I did was to make the hood a bit smaller.  (To keep the pattern symmetrical, it ended up a bit smaller than I would like, but that is still better than a giant hood. )  I do love a nice hooded pullover!

You can find my Ravelry link to the project here.

My next project went a little quicker.  I started with this yarn –

Madeline Tosh DK, in the color Bloomsbury.  It’s a beautiful soft blue.  The pattern is White Russian by Thea Colman of Baby Cocktails.  The pattern is top down, in the round, which makes finishing it so much easier.

After getting this far, I decided that I got it a little too long so I pulled the hem out and redid it.

That also gave me a chance to add a little detail that I forgot the first time around – the buttons at the bottom hem.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the in-the-round concept.  It has its pros and cons, but I have to say the biggest con is that the patterns are usually written so that the front and back are the same size.  In other words, you usually end up with a lower neck in the back, or a higher neck in the front.  This one has the higher neck in the front.  That results in a little bunch of excess fabric gathering at the front of the neck.  You can see it a bit in the picture below, but also in the first two pictures.  In the future, I want to remember to adapt the patterns to include some short-row shaping so that there are a few extra rows to the back.  Has anyone else tried this?  I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.

My favorite thing about patterns that are in the round, is that they usually have Raglan sleeves.  I just love the lines – it makes for a much prettier sleeve.

You can find my Ravelry link for this project here.

That’s all for now.   More knitting soon . . . . . hopefully!

Sewing Room Tour

Before we start the tour, I would like to announce the winners from the last post.  The following 3 people were randomly chosen to win a set of the new patterns:

Anne Simonot – who commented at 9:50 am on 10/12

Frankie – who commented at 12:39 am on 10-13

Diane – who commented at 9:35 pm on 10/14

Please email your shipping addresses to me at hmulder@wecnet.com and I will get your little package of goodies out right away!

The sewing room tour today was something I wanted to share – even though I have shared it in the past (Links to parts 1 and 2 will be listed at the end).  The sewing room belongs to my Dear Mother.  In the last few months, she has repainted it a soft aqua blue and given it a whole new look!  With that new look, she has made a new quilt to go on the focal wall.  That new quilt became one of the new patterns that I shared last week – Refresh.  Here it is on the focal wall in her sewing room –

Stepping back a bit, you can see what a nice grouping the quilt makes with the couch, the family pictures, and the ironing station.

Moving around the room clockwise, here is a better look at that ironing station.  This is seriously the most popular thing from that old post!  Everyone wants to know about the ironing station and where to get one.  It is custom-made, so it’s not possible to just go out and buy one.  Because it is custom-made, is has features like the slide out for the iron to sit on, so it’s not hogging valuable ironing space.  You can also pop the top off, and underneath that cushioned ironing top is a laminate counter top, so it can also be used as a cutting station.  If you are cutting out a large project, you can pull the ironing station out from the wall (it’s on wheels) and there is another pop-up that makes the ironing station about 3 times this size.

You can see the pop-up a little bit in this next picture (a shot from the old post.  It’s that black line on the back of the ironing station)

Continuing around the room, we have a bank of cabinets under the window.

To the left is another sewing station and the main cutting table.

Above the cutting table, the cabinets are open for “decorative purposes.”

The cutting table is nicely lit with the under the cabinet lighting

And continuing around, we have a closet and back to the quilt wall.

I also wanted to share a few of the cabinet ideas, as Mom is great at coming up with lots of great ideas for getting the most out of your sewing room.

Drawer Dividers to keep everything nicely organized –

A file drawer or two –

Instead of a Lazy-Susan in the corner, she has extra deep drawers that take advantage of all that under the cabinet storage.

There is a slide out drawer to stow her printer out of sight.

And – one of my favorite details:  Little pull outs on either side of the sewing station so that when you are working on a quilt, you have some extra space around you to lay out your pieces.

If you want to see more photos or see some of the fabric storage, you can go look at the old posts – Click here for part 1 and here for part 2.

After I did the first post on Mom’s sewing room, we got lots of emails asking for more details – sizes of everything, etc.  Mom found her drawings from the cabinet maker and has offered to share them.  Click here and here to download the drawings.

And for those of you who will ask – her paint color is 3/4 tint of Balmy Seas by Behr.  It’s a lovely color, don’t you think?

And perfect with her beautiful new quilt!   That’s all for now – I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Summer Stars and a Give-Away

The last of the new patterns is called Summer Stars

As you can see, there are two size options in the pattern.  The larger of the two quilts is the same size as the large Harvest Time that I showed the other day, so these two quilts will be part of the rotation that hangs in my kitchen.  I decided to include a topper option too because I can always find a small table or nightstand where I can use one and they always seem to be popular amongst my pattern buyers.

The fabric line I used is called Marmalade – yet another Bonnie and Camille’s fabric line.  All three of the new patterns have featured one of their lines.  I used one of the coordinating solids from the line to really make the octagonal frame around the block stand out.

It’s one of my favorite things to do in my quilt patterns – use a contrasting fabric to show off a design element.  This design also features one of my other loves that you have been hearing about lately – geometric shapes – in this case, the octagon.

This quilt can be made out of several of your favorite precuts – charm squares, layer cakes or fat eighths.  You could also use Fat Quarters, but the quilt wouldn’t be nearly this scrappy.   (You will also need yardage of the background, green, and border fabric)

This pictures shows off the topper size.

And another close-up where the lighting isn’t so harsh –

I think this design needs a little explaining as far as construction goes.  It looks much more difficult than it is.

It is made using my Triangler ruler (though you could use any other kalidescope ruler with a flat top).   The background behind the star – which is the part that I think looks complicated, is simply made from a strip unit of cream and green strips.  It is then cut with the Triangler into triangles – See Number 1, circled below.   Those units are then sewn together with some colored triangles to form the unit circled in Number 2.  When you sew all of those units together, you get the small diamonds circled in Number 3, along with the hexagon border that frames the star.  There are no templates or complicating cutting instructions to cut all those different pieces.  So, do you see what I mean about it being easier than it looks?  The larger size quilt is constructed the same way.

As is tradition on my blog, I would like to give away the first copies of the new patterns to go out the door.  Just to refresh your memory, we have four new patterns:

 

  

Just leave a comment to be entered to win.  I will leave the drawing open over the weekend and then select 3 winners that will each receive a set of the new patterns.

For those of you who have already ordered the new patters, you can still enter to win and I will just give you your choice of a different pattern from this page.   Also, for those who have already ordered (including shops), the paper patterns will ship out next Monday.

Have a great weekend!