OMG September Plus/minus is finished!

My goal for September was to finish my plus and minus quilt, that should have been finished by the end of August as my response to the Dutch MQG theme challenge for July and August. However, at the end of August it looked like this with just the top right corner quilted:

I'm happy I finished it yesterday, and can post this at the eleventh hour.

 The pluses are improvised blocks joined with filler (background) fabric into four 12" squares and then joined; the minuses I made in the quilting, along with some ghost pluses. My idea was, and still is, plus is visible, grabs the attention while the negative is in the background, less visible, but present nevertheless. The ghost pluses represent a no-man's land, an area of doubt and indecision.

close up showing two ghost pluses and a minus

Now I'd like to ask for some advice. Does anyone know how to remove chalk lines? The photo below shows what's left of my quilting guide-lines in 'Sewline' pink chalk. I have rubbed them with fingers, the eraser on the end of the 'pencil' and a clothes' brush, and still they're there. I don't want to heat or wet them in case that fixes them completely. Any hints or experience with chalk would be most welcome.
 

pink chalk guide-lines still visible after A LOT of rubbing!

Quilting this 24"x24" quilt has been all the sewing I've done this month. The quilting lines are 0.25" apart, and that takes forever! This is the last time that I do straight line quilting with shapes I have to go round, as this was a stop-start exercise from start to finish. But the finish was not the real finish:

burying threads and trimming them took two hours!

Last month I won a $25 voucher for the Fat Quarter Shop and received this package 10 days after ordering.

Thank you, Patty, for pulling my name out of the hat last month and to the Fat Quarter Shop for giving a prize. I chose this bundle because winter is drawing in, and I'm planning on alleviating the pending greyness with some fabric sunshine.


Finally another early morning picture of the plus and minus quilt.

The sun was obliquely to my right and slightly in front and I just couldn't get the exposure right. Of course I was breaking the first rule of photography: "NEVER take a photo into the sun," but rules are made to be broken, aren't they?

 I'm linking up to 

 (A bit late; I missed TGIFF last week)

 To see many more goals achieved click on the buttons above.

Enjoy Autumn (not to forget Spring in the Southern Hemisphere) while you can.

Happy sewing

Marly.

OMG September

My goal for September is to finish quilting this:

My plus/minus mini quilt (± 24x24") for the Dutch Modern Quilt Guild. These pluses were improvised and then put together with filler fabric into the final layout. The minuses are in the quilting.

Only one quarter is quilted, even though the plan was to have it completely finished by the end of last week.

I shall be battling on with it and deciding on the position of minuses as I go. Quilting lines half an inch apart take forever!

I'm linking up to Elm Street Quilts:

Click on the button to see more September gaols from around the world.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Knitting in a magic loop: new to me!

New to me in August is knitting in magic loop. It isn't that I've neglected patchwork altogether, but the expected arrival of twins in the family in December has necessitated the shelving of some projects and focussing on the babies! In this case knitting hats for new-born babies.

Baby hats: two premature size and two new-born size. Pattern in 3 sizes from Kelly Brooker on Ravelry.

So, following my new-to-me knitting on a circular needle last month, I've already taken that skill one step further with the magic loop. It took me a couple of hours with a number of You-tube videos to get it right.

Really it's very easy: after casting on you push all the stitches onto the cable, divide them into two, pull the cable between the two groups of stitches - that's the loop - here on the left of the picture. Then you think of when you are knitting on two needles - when you start, in which hand do you have the empty needle?  Right hand, left hand, it makes no difference, it's just what you're used to. The stitches on that side stay on the cable with the last stitch you cast on (and the yarn) nearest to the empty needle, and the stitches on the other side you push onto the other needle; they are the ones you knit first.

One set of stitches on the needles and the other resting on the cable.

Then it's just like working on two needles until they've all changed from one needle to the other. Then you slip the stitches you just knitted onto the cable, being careful not to loose the loop, and pull the "resting" stitches onto the working needle, turn the work round, just like working with two needles, ... and repeat!

You just have to remember to have half the stitches on the needle and half on the cable as you begin every "row".

One group resting on the cable, the others waiting to be knitted.

The You-Tube films were useful, and not! I'm British and knit the stitches from the left needle to the right, with the yarn in my right hand. Most of the films were by Americans who had the wool in their left hand which I found crazily disorientating! There was even one woman knitting onto the left hand needle. Finally I found someone who knits the way I do and then everything fell into place.

The original pattern for these hats is for DK yarn, but I adapted it for 4-ply - premature size: 80 stitches, new-born: 90 stitches. That's also something new for me: adapting a knitting pattern. It's only a small garment and a very simple pattern. I've never adapted a cardigan pattern for myself, except the length of the sleeves - something that doesn't involve maths! Any advanced calculations I've never attempted, but now I think the maths isn't so difficult, it just needs some thought and planning!

I'm linking to Celtic Thistle Stitches for:

Click on the button to see what others have discovered this month.

Happy crafting!

Marly.

August goal reached

 

My goal for August was to start cutting and sewing the pieces for a play mat for twins due in December.

I started the month with this:

 In the meantime I took out this:

Green, even though it looks grey here! The top photo is a better colour.

and replaced it with this:

A much brighter pale green.

And have so far sewn about two-thirds of the pieces:

"Sewn" isn't right in all cases, as some of them are staying as 6" squares! I just sewed the HSTs and an hour-glass block.

I showed the parents what I had on the design wall and they were happy with how it's going. Now I just have to finish the blocks and decide on the layout. The top might even be finished this month.

I'm sorry I can't show more: it has to remain something of a surprise!

I'm linking with

 

Click on the link to see more August goals met.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Orange August

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge for August is orange. Mari posted new block for the Squared Away Sampler, and Angela decided on the colour.

Here are my two 10" blocks in orange and brown.

Speaking of rainbows:

This heralded the end of the heatwave yesterday. This rainbow was a complete semicircle, continuing round to fade into another block of flats about 1km. away to my right. I've never seen a complete rainbow before; they usually fade away before they get to a quarter circle.

On the weather front: the heatwave is over! Hooray! The daytime temperatures above 30°C (normal body temp is 36) are in the past. Yesterday's rain didn't amount to much so it didn't make any difference to the yellow crunchy grass.

I'm linking to

Click on the button to see more orange scraps being put to good use!

Happy sewing

Marly.

One monthly goal August

 
 
My goal for August is firstly to find some yellow & white or mint green & white striped fabric to match these:

fabric choice made by the parents

and then to start cutting and sewing the blocks for a play-mat for twins expected by a family member in December. A play-pen for twins is longer and narrower than usual, approximately 1.5m x 0.8m., I think, but don't worry, I have the measurements somewhere!

I don’t wash my fabric before sewing, but wash the finished quilts so that the wadding can shrink and become puffy. I’ve never bothered to measure a quilt before and after washing, but now I need to know what sort of percentage shrinkage I can expect. Do you know? I’d be grateful if you could share your knowledge.

I'm looking forward to reading about the amount of shrinkage occurring in quilts made of quilting cotton with a 100% cotton wadding and to reading about other goals for August.

I'm linking to 

 

If you click on the button you'll find more August goals.

Happy sewing

Marly

Knitting again.

 This is my first finish for:

This blog has always been about quilting which isn't surprising when you consider the name. One or two side steps into embroidery have occurred, but then in relation to crazy quilting. There we go again ... quilting!

But this post is about knitting. Now I'm knitting again. I stopped about six years ago when the cardigan I was knitting showed signs of being too wide in the shoulders and too tight in the waist! That really is a downer and garment knitting was clearly no longer for me! Then carpal tunnel syndrome made knitting impossible.

I do, however have a lot of wool left over from projects long since worn out and was thrilled to see a pattern offered through Ravelry on Instagram. Never one for an endless row of knitted tea-cosies, odd socks, multi-coloured scarves etc. I was immediately struck by the Memory Keeper's Shawl designed by @linaknits.

Although I've been knitting on and off for more than sixty years, there were several "new to me" things about this pattern.

Firstly it's knitted throughout with two yarns simultaneously: a neutral which is constant throughout, and lots of scraps of varying colours, but of the same thickness - in my case, more or less, as most of the balls had lost their labels! The neutral yarn (I used a light grey) gives more subtle colouring while using up scraps.

Second "new to me" was knitting on a circular needle.

It's not knitted in the round, just backwards and forwards like on conventional needles. But with some 360 stitches in the last row the mind boggles at what would happen at the end of the row with all the stitches on the same needle. After some unfruitful local searching I finally bought a 120cm long circular needle online. 120cm seems to be the longest there is, although this one can be extended by adding other sections of cable. As it was 120 cm was more than long enough.

Thirdly, I'd never heard of an i-cord before.

And now I've knitted one! It forms a more stable edge to the piece, and especially the cast-off i-cord gives a stable yet flexible finish. It can be seen in the photo above; the three stitches on the right hand needle get slipped back onto the left and then knitted again: K2, K2tog, thus taking up the next stitch from the left hand needle. It took ages to cast off 360-odd stitches that way but I'm really satisfied with the result.

One last photo! Today's bright sunshine and shadows are making the colours look rather pale. The first photo (draped over the bamboo) is a better representation of reality.

I'm linking to

Click on the button to see more "new" techniques.

Also linking to

Happy sewing, and knitting

Marly.