Sarah's Quilt (an old unfinished project)

This is the year. I am going to finish my unfinished projects.  I've got three on the back burner that I've brought out.  Here's the first.

Sarah's Quilt
In the fall of 2006 I wasn't working and I needed something to do, so I started a quilt for my mother-in-law, Sarah.  She likes burgundy a LOT.  I found a strip-pieced double wedding ring quilt pattern and template online and used that.  It took me two years to piece and sew the king-size quilt.

When it came time to put the quilt together - to add batting and backing - I decided to use my sewing machine to do the quilting.  But because I'd never quilted with a sewing machine before, and the lines weren't straight lines, and the quilt was so big, I had the hardest time.  I sewed one of the rings and then got the seam ripper and ripped it out, because it was so awful.  My second attempt was to tie it with good-quality yarn that wouldn't fray.  But  the quilt top bunched and it just looked awful.  I got about half the quilt tied, and then I became so frustrated that I put it away.  It's been sitting in my storage room until last week.

Over the last month, I've been sewing a blanket for Ethan.  I almost didn't start the project at all because I promised myself I would finish the purple quilt before I moved on to another quilt. But I broke my promise and made the blanket.  But I still need to finish the purple quilt!

There is another way to finish the quilt.  It has an official name but it's basically professional quilting.  I can take it in to a fabric store near me. They have people who own the big quilting machines and will quilt a really nice design on it.  Then they give it back to me, and I will bind it on my own.  I've hesitated to go this route because it's really expensive, but I think it will be worth it.


I went into the quilt shop closest to my house and found the pattern below.

Last week I separated the layers (batting, backing, and front) and ironed the backing and front with starch, because I read online that it is easier to quilt that way.  The quilt is NOT flat.  Every little four-square join between the circles puckers.  I honestly don't know how to fix that.  Hopefully the person who does the quilting will be able to help me with it.


It's folded up nice and neat, and ready for me to find someone to do the quilting.

Ethan's Blanket is Done! And he loves it!

I finished Ethan's blanket at about midnight on Christmas Eve.  Whew!  I stayed up working on it until 4am from Monday through Saturday.  And it got done.

Here's a photo of my Christmas Eve table.  I inherited my great-grandma Cromar's gorgeous china and flatware, which I used on Christmas Eve. 

Christmas Update: Sydni's Hat and Ethan's Blanket

Sydni's hat is done!!  It turned out much nicer than my first attempt at this hat pattern.

I machine quilted Ethan's blanket, and it was easier than I expected.  I think it looks pretty good.

Here it is before I added the batting and backing:

Here it is after I sewed on the batting and the backing:

One last task: I need to bind the edges of the quilt.  I'm going to do it in the cream skull & crossbones material.

Ethan's getting two Lego Pirates of the Caribbean display boats for Christmas, a lamp, and bed sheets.  His bedroom is going to be really cute when it's all done!

Christmas Projects Update

Here's a quick update on my Christmas projects.  I've lost time because: a) I've been sick, b) I've had to work overtime at work, and c) I've been really sick.

Cross-stitched bread cloth
I haven't even begun this one yet.  I may not get to it!

Nativity pillow
I still haven't begun sewing the quilted border for the pillow.  I may not get to this either!


Hats for Sydni and Brynn
First I worked on Sydni's red hat.  I got cocky and figured I could do fair isle (multi-color stranded) knitting without reading the techniques in my knitting books.  And when it was done, it wouldn't fit over my head!  The flowered design was too tight because I didn't use the right technique.  I actually broke a strand of yarn trying to get it on my head. 

I decided to do better with Brynn's purple hat.  I studied the multi-color knitting techniques in my knitting books, and decided to use the two-handed method.  In this method, one color is in your left hand and you knit it continental style.  The other color is in your right hand and you knit it english style. You just knit the right color according to the chart.  I'm proficient at the continental style but the english style is new to me.    I'm not very good at this two-color method yet; the two colors end up puckering funny in the finished project.  So I still have some learning to do.

Here is Brynn's hat, when I finished the knitting.  I made a smaller bulge at the top of the hat, and knit the ribbing at the bottom of the hat more tightly so it wouldn't flare out like the red one.

After the knitting was done, I added the embroidery.  Here's the fully finished hat.  You can see how the multi-color areas pucker:

I am working on a new hat for Sydni, since I don't like the way the red one turned out.

Jen's Washcloths and Towel
I finished Jen's towel and gave it to her last weekend.  There were only 3 washcloths and 1 towel in the box.  I have a lot more yarn, but I've been too busy with other things.

Ethan's Blanket
Ethan's blanked is a pirate around the world blanket.  I finished the around the world part; next step is to add the border panels around the edge, then put the pieces together for quilting.  I am going to do machine quilting, rather than tying.  I tied a really nice quilt with inferior yarn one time, and the yarn frayed the first time I washed it. It really ruined the effect of the quilt.  So I will try machine quilting.  This project is still a surprise.  He doesn't know he's getting it!

Bottom line, I've still got a lot of work to do.  I'm on vacation until Jan 3, but spending all of Friday out with Craig for our anniversary (12 years!) and hosting a Christmas Eve dinner on Saturday.  I was going to go all out but Craig kind of reined me in.  I really want to use my great-grandma Cromar's gold-edged china and gold silverware, but that means a lot of hand washing, so I'm going to play it by ear.  If I'm still eager to use the china on Saturday, I will!

Update: The Nativity Cross-Stitch

I have finished the cross-stitching of the nativity project.  The buttons are also sewn on.  I just need to piece a quilted border for it.  I have cut out the pieces. I just need to sew them on.

Update: The Pirate Blanket

I have been stealthily working on Ethan's pirate blanket.  It is going to be in the around-the-world pattern.  I'm still strip-piecing the center right now.

The Pillows are Done!

The pillows are done.  Timmy wrapped them and I just have to get them off to the post office!

Pillows for Stevie's kids for Christmas

I know this isn't strictly knitting, but I thought I'd throw it in.

In my family, we draw names for Christmas.  I got my sister Stevie, who happens to have 5 kids.  I thought I'd make pillows.  My friend, Amanda Wilding, taught Timmy's Sunday school class a couple of years ago, and made a cute embroidered Y pillow for him.  And he loves it!  He carries it around everywhere and actually rubbed off the embroidery and  I had to re-embroider it for him.  So I thought Stevie's kids might like pillows.  I'm making one for Ethan, too.

First, I shopped for fabric.  I found the cutest little quilting store right by my work.

I started by embroidering the squares.  I free-handed the Y's and the kids' names, but I got an iron-on pattern for the girls' butterflies.

Then I added a border to the embroidered squares and completed matching patterns for the backs of the pillows.  Measuring everything exactly (and twice) is really important, as well as ironing, at each stage.

At this point I added batting and some spare cheap fabric and quilted the squares.  I'm not sure if it makes a difference.

For the girls' butterflies I covered some rope with fabric and sewed it together.

Then I squared them up and sewed the backs to the fronts, right sides together, with the ropes in between. I didn't put a rope around Adam's pillow, because the first pillow was hard.  But then I figured out how to change the position of my needle and the ropes got easier.  I left a space to stuff the pillows (I only have 3 of the 6 done to this point). 

Once the pillows were stuffed, I sewed that extra space together.

I've got 3 more to finish up.  And I might fill in Stevie's boys' Y's with some kind of embroidery pattern, but I'm not sure I'll have time with all of the other holiday projects I have going.