I'm in Love!

It has been a long time since I felt the stirrings of love....no it's not a person who has captured my heart but a quilt...a beautiful, beautiful quilt that I can't seem to stop touching. My Wagon Wheel quilt top is finished!

I spent my days off this week working away at it and as usual it always takes longer when you are excited to see it finished! And now I have a long wait until the hand quilting starts. It will be October before I get to basting it and in the meantime I will be looking for a quilting design worthy of such love. I am thinking feathers....

And love has struck twice this week ( busy week!). I finished my socks I've been knitting and when I tried them on they felt amazing.

 I can't wait until winter sets in so I can start wearing them. It is a little warm right now for wool socks! This pattern is Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt from the book 'Favorite Socks'.

I think I'll put away my knitting for a bit ( it's my in front of the TV thing to do) and pick up my hexagon quilt that I am hand stitching. More on that later...

Happy Stitching!

Long Weekend Marathon!

No...not a running marathon...a sewing marathon!

My attic sewing room gets a little hot in the summer (that could be why I haven't posted anything for a month!) but I had only 9 Wagon Wheel blocks left to do so this weekend I was determined to get them done. I LOVE these blocks! I can hardly wait to start quilting this, but I still have a bit to do before I get to that stage.

Now I have some borders to cut and sew. The inner border is a piano key border made from whatever scraps I have left. I am hoping there are enough scraps left without dipping into my stash and introducing new fabric to the mix.

Next coming weekend I will get started on the borders and maybe start arranging the 25 blocks. I love it when a quilt gets to this stage...I can feel the anticipation!

I did get my triangle exchange quilt back from the long arm quilter. I am pleased with it ( but not pleased with this picture- I missed most of the border so I cropped it a bit).

I find though that when I have one of my quilts machine quilted by someone, I just am not all that attached to the quilt. I think for me it means much more if I do the work from beginning to end.

You can't really tell from this picture but the quilting design is an all over feather pattern. It is quite nice and suits the quilt. I'll try to take a couple better pictures soon, including a close up.

Next up... I'll have borders to show!

Happy Stitching!

Summer Interrupted Me!

I've been busy enjoying summer pursuits...gardening and margarita's! (Not together!) I finally decided to take some time and get back to working on my wagon wheel quilt.

This morning I was back into my sewing room for a while at least. The heat drove me out of my attic space by early afternoon. It was almost 31 degrees C (close to 90 degrees F) when I finally took refuge in the air-conditioned downstairs!

Despite the heat, I managed to get 3 more blocks done today, making it 9 more blocks since I last blogged!

I have 15 blocks out of 25 completed! I am loving this quilt and I find myself really thinking about how I would like to quilt it. All I've decided for sure is that it will hand quilted.

In the evenings, I have been knitting socks...I have no idea why since I can't wear them in the summer. (I know this for sure because I tried one on to take a picture and it was HOT!)

This is Dead Simple Lace Socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson.

I really enjoy toe up socks, especially when I am using smaller balls of wool like the Kroy Socks FX. It has a lot less yardage than many sock wools and I find it preferable to run out of wool on the leg rather than half way down the foot.

Here is a bit of a close up..

Hopefully I'll back up to my sewing room again soon....

Happy Stitching!

Inspired!

I finished 4 more blocks this week for my Wagon Wheel quilt! I am up to 6 blocks! Just 19 more to make enough blocks to make this quilt big enough for my bed!

After becoming smitten with this quilt I decided to cut out all my pieces I needed to make all my blocks.

Now I am ready to sew!

At night, in front of the TV, I have been mostly knitting. I finished another pair of socks this week.

These Hedgerow Socks are a pattern I have been wanting to knit for quite a while. They fit great but I'll have to wait for several months before it is cold enough to actually wear them!

One great feature that I love in this pattern is that the pattern goes straight down to the bottom of the heel!

I'll have to get another pair of socks started this week so I can use up a bit more of my stash!

But for today I am hoping to get a couple of more blocks done for my quilt!

Happy Stitching!

I've Been Uninspired

I have been completely uninspired with ALL my projects lately. I have been just going through the motions of working on these projects without my usual passion. My thoughts on quilting are that if I am not enjoying it anymore then it is time for it to be put aside for a while. Sometimes those projects never get finished but sometimes I find I am wanting to work on them again at a later date. I figured it was time for a fresh start. I packed up everything I have been working on and everything in my want to do pile and put it away where I can't see it. I know it's there and maybe one day I will want to play with it again but not for a while.



So I started something completely new! I cut out my test block yesterday and ta-da!

It all went together without a problem so I made a second block today and starting cutting a third block out.

I am loving this scrappy quilt!

The pattern is called Wagon Wheels and is from Quiltmania issue #78.

I am so happy to have my quilting mojo back!

Happy Stitching!