Finished and completed

Good news here, I've finished knitting socks for my son. I love this yarn. It's fun to knit with the changing colors. (Patons kroy yarn.) Green has been his favorite color since he was a baby. Don't children hate it when you talk about their baby days?

And I have completed the baby quilt that I've been making for my niece, or should I say grand-niece (to be). It's made with 7 1/2 inch and 4 1/2 inch squares and 2 inch strips. I shopped all around the Internet for some of the fabrics, and the remaining ones were in my stash. I free-motion quilted it on my sewing machine. I feel slightly guilty about this, but it seems that I have abandoned my old habit of making bias binding on quilts. I guess that I've gotten out of the habit of going through the extra effort of making bias binding.

On another topic, I received my copy of "McCall's Quilting" magazine and Tonya's blog is mentioned on page 49! http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/

I've free-motion quilted the baby quilt that I made, and now I'm sewing on the binding. It took a lot of time because I was trying to get a nice piece of flannel for the backing. And I'm still trying to organize a backing for the donation quilt. I guess that I can piece together some flannel for that. I hope to do that today.
Meanwhile, I did mail the white lace baby sweater to my darling new baby cousin. It was kind of a knitting adventure to work on an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern. She sort of assumes that the knitter has a lot of knitting experience. But the sweater came out so well. Actually, if you want knitting directions that give real guidance, I recommend the Patons company knitting books.

Donation quilt progresses

These rainy days can come in handy. See what can be accomplished merely by totally neglecting the housework? I have pieced together the donation quilt top. My next job is to organize something for the backing. And I have this and another quilt that need to be quilted.

Baby surprise jacket

I have so many projects going right now, that I had to make a list for myself and post it on the fridge. At least I've finished this one. It's the Surprise baby sweater from the book "Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop." It's knitted in one piece, as the photo shows, and then you fold it up and it becomes a sweater. You still have to make a seam on top of the sleeves. The fun is that you can add in stripes and they made a design on the front and back.

Martin Luther King Day Community Service

This is my project for my Martin Luther King Day community service. I've started on a quilt for donation to http://www.spinoc.org/home.htm The organization Spinoc helps homeless people to new housing and treatment of their problems. I belong to a lovely group of ladies that make blankets and other items to donate. I'm sewing 6 1/2 inch squares. There are several bloggers that are working on the Martin Luther King Day community service.

E.Z.'s February sweater

Do you know what this is? It's the so-called February baby sweater. The pattern is from the book "Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac." It's an entertaining knitting book (there are such things) and it features a project or two for each month of the year. This sweater is knitted all in one piece and is fun to make. My only hint to knitters is to remind them to make the first buttonhole after the first 4 rows. I used Caron's Simply Soft yarn, and the sweater only requires 6 ounces.
Meanwhile, I'm making more of those house blocks that I mentioned previously.

MLK Day

In honor of MLK day, Cheri at http://jovaliquilts.blogspot.com/ suggests that people work on some donation project. I think that's a good idea, especially for an old (1964) picket line walker like myself. I was one of those strange white people who "suddenly turned up on line." Check out her blog for more details about the donation plans. I have just donated a quilt to an organization that helps the homeless today, and I'm hoping to start another one. I'll plan to start it on the 19th.

Sort of free-form House block

If the charge is starting a new project before the other ones are completed, I plead guilty. I'm about to be arrested by the quilt police again, I guess. But I had this idea. I love Gwen Marston's design of a liberated house square. But then, I was struggling with how to put those blocks together. So I decided to make a more tame version. I came up with the idea to square up the pieces. I'm not that accurate a piecer, but I make up for it with enthusiasm. Anyhow, here's the recipe for the quilt block:
6 1/2 inch squares of free-form piecing,
roof: 6 1/2 by 3 1/2 dark color
sides of roof: 3 1/2 inch squares of white. Mark the squares on the diagonal. Sew to sides of roof.
Sides: strips of white 2 1/2 inches wide (I sew to sides and then trim with rotary cutter to make the length)
Grass: 1 3/4 inch wide strip of green. Sew to bottom.
Square up the thing.
This block uses up all the little scraps of fabric any other person would have thrown away long ago. And I'm even using some old bits of muslin.

Letter patchwork

So, I finally got around to trying patchwork letters. A rather staid looking work so far, but I'm thinking to liven things up with yo-yo flowers. I wanted to make this with no pre-planning, I just grabbed some fabric strips and got started. I figured that the most complicated letter was the "E" and started with that one. I spelled the word backwards when making the letters. The word "LIFE" has a lot of meaning for me, in more than one respect. I think this will end up being a wall hanging. I like to hang wall hangings in my hallway, on the doors. I always have a couple of them up (I put them on pants hangers. I have some of those stick-on hooks on the doors.) I rotate the hangings according to the season, etc. Have to put up my patriotic one for the Inauguration and the MLK Birthday holiday, plus my Tree Planted by the Water one, also.

My other big craft excitement is that I shopped on ebay and got my hands on a copy of the book "Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop". I was looking on www.flickr.com to see baby sweaters and was really intrigued by the Baby Surprise Jacket. I decided that I would really like to knit it. The book has arrived, and it has the pattern within. Now I have to acquire the yarn.

Nine Patch Quilt

Da--da! Finished. I made this quilt for a donation. It's rather cuddly, actually. If you squint your eyes a little, you'll be able to note that the light squares make a diagonal line across the quilt. That's what I like about this pattern the most. It requires the choosing of light and dark fabrics to achieve the effect. I still have another PhD to work on. (I learned this on the Internet the other day--instead of saying UFO, you say PhD (Project half done)). What am I getting my PhD in? textiles.

Hint for free-motion quilting

A little helpful hint for free-motion quilting (from experience): Be sure to clean lint out of the machine, and a new needle may be needed.

Happy New Year. I'm in the middle of free-motion quilting the nine patch quilt now. I knitted this baby sweater lately. I always need to have a baby sweater on hand. For emergencies--I know that the mother was pregnant for nine months--but babies sneak up on me. Last time, someone in the family needed a baby gift. So off went the last green baby sweater I knitted. Luckily, I got the yarn for this sweater at a yard sale a year or two ago, so it's free, as it were. I'm also knitting socks for my son at the moment, and a vest for one of my daughters. (And I'm not even going into the crocheting and the other quilt I'm making.) And there's a waiting line for my knitting--another pair of socks and a vest and a baby sweater, and so on. My family went skiing lately, so those scarves that I made for them came in handy after all.
Baby sweater pattern from www.knittingpureandsimple.com