Unfinished Socks

What you're looking at here is my pile of socks-in-progress.  Four socks unfinished, three needing only the second toe grafted and ends woven in order to have a complete pair of socks.  Self, you should really get on that.  

Happy crafting!

FO: Triangle is the Word Quilt

Finished!  Binding is sewn down and hanging sleeve is attached.  

Before washing finished pics.  

Stash batik for the back. 

Quilting detail on the back. 

Bird. 

Quilt Stats:

Name: Triangle is the Word Quilt
Finished Measurements: 45" x 44.5"
Batting: Mystery 100% cotton, Heirloom, probably
Backing: Purple Batik from old stash
Thread: pieced with EssentialPRO white (Connecting Threads) and quilted with C&C Dual Duty in four different colors to match hexagon colors.  

There's more about the process of making this quilt here.  Linking up with Finish It Up Friday. 

Happy crafting! 

Progress post: triangle quilt

AKA "the bird quilt."  Because of the bird.  

Here's the initial sketch - I grouped colors (dk pink, red-purple, blue-purple, and blue) into hexagons first. 

Then I scrambled them a bit, switching triangles with neighboring triangles.  I was going for a semblance of order but not completely - I wanted it a bit mixed up, too.  Off-balance.  

Sewing this many triangles together never would've happened if it were the only project I was working on.  It was the leaders-and-enders project for a long time.  I've since started putting a pin into the block/triangle/fabric piece that goes on the left as I chain-piece, in order to keep the order straight as I go, which helps a lot. 

My initial plan for this quilt involved more stuff on top, but at the very last minute I decided that it was too much, and this should just be a triangle quilt. I also toyed with adding black squares all along the ends of the rows so that I could have straight edges without cutting it down, but punted on that, too. 


With the edges cut down, the top just barely fit onto both the backing and a spare piece of batting I had.  I safety-pin basted yesterday and have spent a lot of time quilting today. 

See the bird?

The obvious quilting plan was to quilt 1/4" from the edges of all the triangles and horizontal seams, but that just wasn't speaking to me.  So instead, I decided to emphasize the hexagons and am quilting 1/4" from the edges of the original hexagons in thread that matches most of the colors of that hexagon.  Only doing that would not have been quite enough quilting for the batting, so I'm also quilting in the ditch across the horizontal axis of each hexagon.  (I tried to figure out a way to stitch over every seam in the hexagon without tracing over any, and if there's a way to do it, I haven't found it.)  

I've done the pink and blue hexagons, and will work on the blue-purple next.  Don't have any red-purple thread, so I may try to pick some up in town tomorrow.  Am hoping that this will be my next finish, and soon. 

Happy crafting!

Craft Like You're Being Chased by a Bear

I am on vacation!  Today is the first official day of my vacation, and I have spent the morning sewing with the intensity of a person being chased by a bear.  This was mildly uncomfortable, so I went for a jog and pretended I was being chased by an actual (lazy and slow) bear, and that worked out some of the energy, but not all of it, so back to the grind.  

Right now I have some terrible pictures to show you of Child 2's Big Girl Quilt.  

Here's my design wall, which I have recently been chastised for:  
 

Apparently some people can't look at three separate quilts in order to give feedback of the one on top.  Noted, but there's very little I can do about it at this point, especially given that that same person would probably object to me covering the rest of the walls upstairs with batting, so. The Red Tumbler quilt is on top, and it's just the red or reddish pieces. 

Here's the bottom half of the quilt, spread out on the back of the Gorilla Quilt, draped on the couch.  I honestly don't know how people work without design walls - I can't visualize for squat, so I have to lay eeeeeverything out to see how it looks, then mutter to myself as I move the pieces around.  

 This morning I got all of the rows sewn together (thereby unearthing the triangle quilt underneath, as well as getting lots of those triangles sewn together, too).  Now I'm taking an eating and blogging break, and I have to decide what to focus on for the afternoon crafting frenzy.  

Happy Crafting!  Don't let that bear get you.