Good Fortune clue 1

Shall I? Shan't I? I thought when I read the introduction to Bonnie Hunter's mystery for this winter. I really don't have time for another quilt at the moment, but I can't resist a mystery!

The first clue was published on Friday inspired by China (the country, not the fine porcelain!) and features a lot of red. Yesterday afternoon the link up started and an amazing number of people had already made lots of units, and when I say lots I mean more, many more than these:

Fourteen 2.5" four-patches

So this morning I hastily fished in my red and neutral scrap buckets and and whittled some already small scraps down to 1.5" and came to a total of fourteen 4-patches. That's it for this week.

I've decided to follow the clues, making some units each week, and deciding after the reveal how many more I need for my project. I shan't be making a bed quilt - we don't use those here. I like to read Bonnie's clues - they're so informative and I learn a lot - and follow people's progress from week to week.

I'm linking to Quiltville

Click on the button to see thousands of mini 4-patches (mostly red!)

Happy sewing
Marly.

Finished: play mat

                


This is my second finish for Finish Along 4th quarter .

Play mat finished: washed, bound ....

... labelled and delivered to the parents. Backing is Ikea heavy-weight furnishing fabric (looks a bit like duck cloth)

On both my OMG November and FAL list for the 4th quarter I had this play mat:

play mat freshly washed and dried, but not yet bound.

I asked on 1 August if anyone knew by what percentage a quilt shrinks and Sandy kindly pointed me towards quiltingboard.com  There I found one useful answer: 10%. Remember that folks: if it's absolutely imperative that your quilt is not too small, and not excessively too big, add 10% (ie one-tenth) to the length and width,or a bit more to be on the safe side! There were other answers too, mainly relating to how intense your quilting is which is also a factor of course. I wasn't going to quilt intensely because the request was for something soft so went for 10% extra.

I added 10% to length and width by adding more generous borders than the play pen measurements would suggest.

not bound but provisionally finished with a wide zig-zag stitch.

However, I thought it might well shrink even more than 10% so rather than have to take off the binding to add some extra quilt by QAYG, I zig-zagged around the edge, and washed the mat together with the binding fabric. It has shrunk, and by slightly more than 10%, but has finished within the margins I'd set, just!

Fabric:
Top: Assorted fat quarters, some from stash
Backing: Ikea furnishing fabric with a black/white/pale green design of barns
Thread: Aurifil 50 wt in pale grey (2615)
Statistics:
base of play pen:                      28" x 48"               71  x 122cm
mat before washing at 40°C:   33" x 53"               84.4 x 135cm
mat after washing at 40°C:      29.75"x 48.75"      76 x 126cm

I'm linking up to TGIFF on Friday,
to Patty at Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal at the end of November ,
and at the beginning of January to Sandra at Studio Sew of Course for Finish Along 2018, 4th Quarter.


             

Click on the buttons in due time, to see more progress and finishes.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Finished: my Secret Grove mitts

 

A couple of weeks ago I finished my mitts from the "Secret Grove" pattern by Pauliina Karru, which I bought via Ravelry. This is my first finish for the Finish Along fourth quarter.

They have been knitted from Tuku fingering weight wool on 4 dpns size 2.5 mm. This style has a long gauntlet which works to bridge the gap between sweater and wrist, and has open fingers, so that using a keyboard in the winter doesn't mean completely cold hands. I can imagine wearing these under ski mitts. I have already used one on my left hand while knitting; I removed the right-hand mitt quite quickly as my hand movements were being restricted.

I shall be linking this post to:

 at the beginning of January. 

Happy crafting

Marly

One Monthly Goal in November

My goal for November is to finish the play mat for my twin grandchildren who are expected in December.

Here it is:

It was also my goal for October, but it's still not finished!

Yet another goal not reached! I had the top sewn together early in October, but the quilting is heavy going: a combination, I think, of a double layer of wadding and Ikea furnishing cotton as backing.
When I roll the fabric up the roll is so bulky I can't see over it if I'm sitting at the machine so I've resorted to standing. I didn't expect that to be so easy; I certainly have a better view of the fabric, and more control of what's happening. I had a problem at first controlling the speed, being rather heavy-footed when my legs got tired. That was quickly remedied by taking a break regularly and doing something else, like writing this blog post!

There's not much more to be done to the mat, just quilting a few more diagonal lines, trimming, provisionally binding and washing. I read that I can expect up to 10% shrinkage on quilting cotton so I added that, plus a bit extra, all round. I'm going to provisionally bind it on the machine with a long stitch, and then trim it finally after washing, and then reattach the binding permanently.

That shouldn't take me so long! Well, we'll see at the end of November!

I'm linking to Patty at  

click on the button above to see more November goals.

Happy sewing

Marly.