finished!

The baby quilt is done!  It took me a couple of tries to get the machine portion of the binding sewn on just right, and then two evenings of tv watching to hand stitch the back of the binding.  I love hand stitching binding, I don't think I could switch to an all machine method even if I knew I could get great results.  There's just something soothing about stitching that binding down.  I do prefer to use an invisible stitch (called a ladder or hidden stitch) instead of a whipstitch, which I think looks a little messy.  I had a hard time getting a nice picture of the entire quilt front, this is the best I could do!

I am completely in love with the rounded corners!  I think they look so nice and tidy and modern.  I definitely see more bias tape making in my future!

A few more random shots.  All in all, I'm very happy with this quilt and I hope mama and baby like it too!  

speedy baby quilt

A friend and neighbor recently had her first girl (after two rough and rowdy boys!), and since she is an admirer of all things handmade, I decided she needed a girly quilt for baby Brooke.  I went with a simple strip quilt in fun bright fabrics from my stash and I tried a couple of new techniques.  I've always loved the look of rounded corners, but I never wanted to mess with making bias binding.  I bit the bullet and tried it, and it wasn't that bad!  I used this tutorial from Jaybird Quilts for making continuous bias binding.  The only issue I had was that when I sewed the tube together, my lines were all off by 1/4", even though I matched them up perfectly.  There wasn't any mentioning of offsetting the lines to account for the seam allowance when you pin the fabric together, but it must be something along those lines.  I'm guessing I just did something wrong, but I was able to fudge it when I cut the binding and it all worked out just fine.  I'm excited to handstitch the binding and get this one delivered!

Finished measurements are 34" x 32".

the big one

I seem to be making slow progress on lots of projects right now.  As part of our bedroom redo, I'm making my first ever queen size quilt for our bed.  I'm so excited about sleeping under a quilt that I've made, but man, queen size is big!!  It will be a string quilt with an assortment of blue fabrics with some brown thrown in as well.

I've cut out all the muslin blocks for foundation piecing and the strips of fabrics, although looking at the picture, that sure doesn't look like enough strips for a queen size quilt!  My quilt is inspired by this lovely quilt top and will have thin Kona navy borders around each set of four blocks and wide Kona bone sashing.

sweater progress no. 1

I've been following along with luvinthemommyhood's summer sweater KAL, working on my first ever adult sweater!  I've made three for L, but that hardly counts since proper fit isn't really an issue with baby sweaters.  In my opinion, it's definitely getting a nice fit that's the challenging part of sweater knitting, not the actual knitting techniques.  I chose Hannah Fettig's lovely Calligraphy Cardigan for my project since I have a similar store bought sweater that I love.  I was pretty confident with choosing this sweater that I'd be able to get a good fit and the style would be flattering on me.  I've been chugging away and have just started the increases for the hips.  I think I might actually get it done in time for cold weather, if not by the end of the KAL!

A couple things about the yarn...I love it, first of all.  It's soft, washes well, and should be nice and warm while still being lightweight.  Since it is loosely twisted and is still lubricated for machine knitting, it is a bit splitty.  You need to pay a little more attention to what you're doing, especially with increases, or you end up with split stitches.  But, oh, it's worth it!  The extra fine merino is deliciously soft, I know this will become one of my favorite sweaters!

zigging and zagging

I've made several quilts over the past 3 years...at least 11 that I can think of off the top of my head.  Oddly enough, not one of them has been for me!  I started a zigzag quilt for myself nearly a year ago, following this tutorial and using some Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley that I'd been hoarding for just this purpose.  Unfortunately, cutting the squares is as far as I've gotten, selfish quilting keeps getting bumped to the bottom of the crafting priority list.

I hope to make some final decisions about the layout and get sewing soon!  I think this will come together quickly.  As always, it's just a matter of sitting down and doing it.

back to fall

The end of summer/beginning of a new school year still feels like an exciting time to me even though I'm seven years out of school and have no school age kids.  This is my time for resolutions, deep cleans and life changes.  I scrubbed the fridge for the first time in a long time, and it felt good.  So, this is the perfect time to start the blog I've been thinking about starting for ages.  I hope that it will be a record of my creative projects and a place to share some of the things I've learned as I've made.