drop off and pick up

I got my quilt dropped off today! I am very excited and also nervous. It will take about 6 weeks to get it back, so I will have a while to stew and overthink whether I picked the right pattern and thread color. The folks at the shop were very helpful in that, so I’m pretty sure it’s going to be amazing. 

I couldn’t leave without looking around, of course, and I found a really great canvas mushroom print that I would like to use for a large Firefly Tote. The snail print on black is AMAZING and will be one of the coordinating prints for that. This shop also has lots of great Tula Pink in stock and those birds were singing my name. I ended up spending some time this evening cutting out fabrics from my stash for a couple of small Firefly Totes, but I am looking forward to playing with these soon. 

My crafty spidey sense told me that Fillory Yarn was close by - a fact I was not sure of but a quick check of the map on my phone told me I was right. Since I’d made the drive and it was just 3 miles away I figured I would pop in. I had in mind that I wanted one more color of the worsted wool I used for my dad’s sweater to combine with those leftovers and some other stash yarns to make a fair isle cowl. I didn’t find the coral color I was hoping for but got a beautiful neutral instead. Then I found a sample of a cowl that felt incredibly soft and was a really great geometric colorwork pattern. Upon inspection, it used two colors of Malabrigo Mecha, coincidentally the same as a few skeins of yarn I have had lingering in my stash for quite some time without projects in mind. I bought a neutral to mimic the sample cowl (which was neutral and yellow) and will be using a beautiful variegated purple and blue called Lotus. 

I finished the hat I started on New Year’s this afternoon (it’s blocking), so it’s a great time to start a new project. Did I pick anything that’s in my queue? Of course not, the shiny new yarn got wound, along with the much older skein to pair it with. I am looking forward to another quick knit. 

 

quilts at the ready

When I sat down to sew today I wanted to make little things, but felt like I had a couple of *ahem* larger projects staring at me from across the room. I finished a queen sized quilt top this time last year and sometime mid year purchased this bright floral fabric for the back. It has sat. So today I picked up the backing and started piecing some long seams. I have decided to have it quilted for me because I would like to use it on my bed this year, I am already hand quilting a queen sized quilt, and it makes me tired to contemplate quilting this on my machine. 

I need 3-6 inches of extra backing on all sides for the long arm folks according to their website, so this presented a bit of a puzzle for me with the 6 yards of fabric I had. I ended up adding a strip of another print down one side just to have plenty of extra wiggle room. I ironed the top again since it’s been folded for a while, and pressed seams open and ironed the entire pieced backing. Getting all of that fabric flat made me really appreciate my decision to have it quilted - so much fabric! I still have a bunch of batting on a roll, so I cut some of that too and all of the pieces are hung up and ready to go to the shop. They take walk ins, so I am hoping I can get it in this weekend or next and have it by February or March. 

The other project hanging around (literally, on my project wall) was this scrappy improv project. I’ve decided to make it into a wall hanging which made it possible to piece a couple of batting scraps together and pick a backing fabric today. I got it all quilted with just very simple vertical lines in the sashing and it is trimmed up. I haven’t bound it yet because I don’t know what I will use, maybe some scrappy strips? That black fabric was really fiddly linen so I think I would hate binding with that. I am also considering tying the middle of each square with some coordinating yarn. Stay tuned!

new year, new project

Celebrated this evening with a new year’s cast on. I did end up binding off my striped sweater last night - happy to have won yarn chicken on new year’s eve - but I don’t like the way the neckline turned out so I need to consider my options before that will be done. Bummer, but I’m not going to let it get me down. Instead I treated myself to the next project, one I’ve had in my mental queue for a bit. This will be the third time I’ve knitted this particular hat pattern, so I know it will turn out great. I’m really enjoying the color and the quick progress. What a lovely treat!