I have lots of lovely brightly colored thread, but it’s the neutrals, the whites and creams and tans, that make things go around here.
Boring? Possibly — but lovely, nonetheless. Look at all of the possibility in that pile of thread.
Last night we volunteered at the movie theater — we didn’t know what to expect for attendance, and hoped it would be quiet. Friday night they had about 55 people, which didn’t sound too bad.
The final count that I heard was 141.
We were 3 people away from being sold out.
Luckily the volunteers get to put seat savers on their seats before anyone else shows up, so we had a row of empty seats waiting for us when we finally finished serving pop and popcorn and candy to the other 137 people that showed up. The concession prices had all gone up 25-50 cents effective the night before — I was waiting for complaints, but didn’t hear any.
The movie? Tangled. I liked it, but then I’m a sucker for that kind of thing. The boys didn’t seem overwhelmingly thrilled, but they didn’t complain. Their movie interests are more in the “Exploding Things” category than in the “Disney Princess” category, these days.
I feel like I have spent my entire day quilting, but all I have to show for it is that I finished the black stitch in the ditch, and started something a little more interesting.
OK fine. You twisted my arm. I’ll show you another sneak peek:
I have to admit that continuous curve is not much more interesting than stitch in the ditch, though.
It’s funny: I used to be perfectly happy with my freehand continuous curve. I have tried using the various tools and templates, but have never had much luck, and have always gone back to freehand.
Now that I have an IQ, though? It does take time to set up the pattern to stitch out, but it is so worth it. I probably won’t ever do freehand continuous curve again…
Even though it feels like I’ve been quilting all day, I really haven’t. I’m not really sure what I’ve been doing — I hate that feeling of time being sucked away by the Internet. I didn’t do a very good job about being deliberate with how I spent my time today, but I figure it’s still vacation, so tomorrow I’ll really get going.
Just watch me.
I have been so productive, that I have hesitated to speak about the productivity, lest I jinx it.
I am taking a break from the sewing marathon I’ve been immersed in for the last 2 days to share a few pics of what I’ve accomplished. Last week, I made this fleece throw for one of my nieces.
Orange is her favorite color, and this is the leftover fleece from those hats I made at the beginning of the month. I used the orange fleece, a blue cotton for the “top” and a wool batting, making for a very snuggly lap-sized blanket.
I’ve already documented the Lone Star Quilt that I got quilted, plus I quilted this one:
The pattern is Peppermint Swirls by Fig Tree Quilts. The pictures are terrible: we haven’t seen the sun in DAYS, and this one is hard to photograph in this nasty light.
The blocks and outer border designs are by Donna Kleinke and are called Winterberry Holly (I think?) I purchased them from Digitech Designs. They stitched out beautifully! I did the cream border and the green and cream stitch in the ditch freehand. The stitch in the ditch around the cross hatching, as well as the cross hatching itself, and the orange peel in the print fabric were done on the IQ.
After quilting that wonky Lone Star, it such a pleasure to quilt a nice flat quilt.
I have also finished the binding on a grand total of FOUR quilts. One is packed and ready to be mailed to its new owner, one has been claimed by my husband, and the other two are waiting for a home, they’ll probably be QOVs.
All were shop samples that had been quilted but never bound. One of the quilts has been sitting around waiting for me to hand finish the binding. I picked it up two days ago and thought, gee, a machine binding would look a lot better than the mythical hand binding and 30 minutes later: done. The other 3? That’s a weird story: some months ago I went on a finishing spree and had sewn the binding to the front, but I had never sewn the ends together, so they were sitting in a pile waiting for…something…the binding fairy, maybe?
I knocked those out the other day as well, although I was texting with my sister while I was working on them and managed to cut one of the bindings WRONG and had to piece in another section.
In knitting news, I finished a scarf I was making for myself, but it needs to be blocked, so I’m going to do that before taking any pictures of it.
ANd finally (phew!) I started piecing a new quilt. I am so beyond thrilled with how it is turning out, I can’t wait to show it off, but I’m only going to give you a sneak peek of a corner:
I haven’t been on a sewing marathon like this in MONTHS. I haven’t wanted to piece like this in months, actually. I pieced and pieced and pieced yesterday and this morning, and I’m going to have a finished 70 by 70 quilt top some time later tonight or tomorrow and it is so awesome, I can’t stand it.
I’d better get back to it — it’s a good thing we don’t have any big New Year’s Eve party plans: it’s foggy, foggy, foggy and has been raining (the freezing kind of rain) and slick and gross.
I hope that wherever you are, you are warm and safe and enjoying a celebration as we head towards a new year. 2011 had better be great, that’s all I’m saying…
This is the quilt that has been on the frame for a coon’s age. It’s beautiful, and turned out exactly the way my customer wanted it (I’m not bragging, she said those exact words, LOL), and it’s finally done:
I did all of the straight line stitching, freehand (well, with a ruler), around the dark and light blue chains. When you view the closeups, especially of the back, you can see just how much straight line quilting that was. Those squares are 1 inch finished. The block designs were stitched by the computer. They are meant for a Double Wedding Ring, and fit these spaces just perfectly. (The patterns are all designed by Anne Bright, Trellis Vines and Trellis Hearts).
There are a bunch of pictures, so I’m adding them in as a gallery, you can click on each thumbnail to get a closer look.
Can I just say, I love my Intelliquilter? Love. It.
edited to add: The pattern is from Judy Martin’s Log Cabin Quilt Book.
Now, in theory I could try again to take IN focus pictures, but that would require changing socks again, and taking the memory card back out of the card reader and putting it into the camera and finding a spot with better light and…I just don’t have it in me.
These adorable socks are called Absinthe, the pattern is from Knitty.com. I even used the yarn that the pattern calls for, which is much prettier in person, vs. this lovely out of focus picture. I knit the plain toe section a little bit longer, and only did 4 repeats of the leg pattern (instead of 5) because I was running out of yarn, (thanks to making them longer in the foot…). My cabling still needs work, but I’m pretty happy with them.
I finished the second one on Sunday (the first has been done for awhile). Naturally, that meant I could start a new pair of socks (though I did finish knitting a Christmas present before I let myself start the new sock:
These are called Blueberry Bubbles. They are going to be stinking adorable. The cable just wiggles it’s way up the side of the sock, the right sock will be the mirror image. The cable pattern is super easy — no cable needle. You just pass a slipped stitch over two knit stitches, and then a yarn over in the next row. I’m using some hand-dyed yarn I bought online about a year ago. I had started different socks, but changed my mind. When I found this pattern, I knew this pair of socks is what this yarn really wanted to be.
Oh, and I might have ordered some yarn to make this sweater: Elphaba Pullover. In a dark green, though. Cause is’t Elphaba, don’t you know? **
But now, I must return to the customer quilting on the frame. IT is a beautiful quilt, but the stitch in the ditch is…tedious. More tedious than stitch in the ditch is normally, because it’s not long straight lines: it’s 1 inch or less lines. Stop and start and stop and start…and…you get the picture.
And I’m doing it uncaffeinated. I have gone cold turkey: I have not had a drop of Pepsi in 3 weeks.
I only mention this because I could REALLY use a Pepsi right now. Like, you might get me to agree to just about anything if you offered me a Pepsi. Well, maybe not ANYTHING, but…I can just about taste it, and feel the sugar rush and the caffeine rush and…yeah.
Like I said, I’m off the stuff, and I know that I will be a better, healthier person for doing so, but damn it. I WANT A PEPSI.
**In case you don’t know: in the book and musical “Wicked” Elphaba is the name given to the Wicked Witch of the West. She is green. Plus, there’s the whole Emerald City thing.
