I just loved knitting Kristen’s mystery socks for 2009. I may start trying to knit socks this way in the future — knitting both cuffs, then both legs, etc. — because it gets them done, both socks, pretty quickly. These are for my grandmother and so they are a bit big on me, which is good since she has bigger feet than me. Kristen’s pattern is wonderful and the details in the socks are really great. So one Christmas gift done, a whole bunch more to go.
Do you remember our need for camping quilts? I guess camping quilt is a bit of a misnomer since this will be used for camping and the beach and picnics. I really should call it a drag-around-everywhere quilt. I’ve been sorting scraps, cutting strips, and sewing log cabins since July — not continuously, obviously — and I lugged a ton of scraps to the quilt retreat and back. When I left home I had the red, yellow, and orange log cabins done. When I returned home I had finished purple and green. Last week I made a whole bunch of blue blocks and over the weekend I got the whole thing together.
The quilt top measures about 68″ x 85″ and has a total of 80 log cabins. After I sorted my scraps by color I trimmed the pieces into squares and strips. Each log cabin has a 3″ square — before sewing — at the center and the strips for the logs are 2″ wide before sewing. I had two rules while making the blocks: 1. do not repeat a fabric in any given block, and 2. just use the next strip you grab from the pile, no editing. I cannot tell you how many times I pulled a strip to add to a block and thought yuck! but sewed it on anyway. Sometimes the yuck ones turned out to be favorites, sometimes they were just fine, none were so bad I had to rip them apart. I also made all the log cabin blocks I could from each scrap pile so I had some variety to choose from when laying out the quilt. That also means that there is a sizable stack of pre-made log cabin blocks just waiting to be used. I already have ideas for 3 more camping quilts so I know they’ll be coming in handy.
One of my favorite parts of this quilt is finding the fabrics from any number of projects. There are lots of Virtual Quilting Bee fabrics in there, most of Katie’s dresses, baby quilts for friends, bed quilts my mom made, pillows, bags, backpacks. It just makes me so happy to see all that in there. I just love the whole thing so much it’s going to be hard to take it camping. But seriously, when we do we just might have the best bedding in the campground.
It’s funny that Anne mentioned Heather Ross’s Mendocino line in my last post because that is indeed one of the quilt tops I made using this same design. On the rocket/robot quilt there were two large scale prints that I wanted to leave in large pieces. Then there were three pretty monochromatic small scale prints that were the same except in three different colorways. And then I had two prints left, one a stripe and one a sort-of medium scale print that had a lot of the other colors in it.
For the Mendocino quilt I wanted to really feature the large scale print in yellow — Katie’s favorite color — so all of the big blocks are made from that fabric. The three smallest rectangles are made from three small scale mostly monochromatic prints — two are the same print in different colorways, one is a very similar print in a third colorway — and the two medium rectangles are made from more medium scale prints that include a lot of the colors in the quilt. I found that having the medium blocks incorporate a lot of the colors really helped the aesthetic of the quilt.
So for the nitty gritty stuff. I started with my finished large block size. On the baby quilt the finished large blocks are 9″ square, on the larger quilts they are 12″ square. For the medium blocks you just half — because there are two pieces — the dimensions, 4.5″ square for the baby quilt, 6″ square for the bigger. Lastly, the three smaller rectangles are one-third the large block in height and half the large block in width, 3″x4.5″ for the baby quilt and 4″x6″ on the larger quilts. After you figure out all those dimensions you need to add 1/2 inch to each side for your seam allowance. So my cutting chart for these quilts was:
| Baby Quilt | Throw Quilts | |
|---|---|---|
| large squares | 9.5″x9.5″ | 12.5″x12.5″ |
| medium squares | 5″x5″ | 6.5″x6.5″ |
| small rectangles | 3.5″x5″ | 4.5″x6.5″ |
Not too hard, right? Here’s a closer look at the medocino blocks, if you click through to flickr the dimensions are there too.
Ages ago I saw this rocket-robot fabric on Kathy’s blog and she had a contest about quilt patterns for the fabric. If you ever need some pattern inspiration the comments in that post are a great resource. So somewhere in there is a pattern for this design idea.
One thing I learned on the retreat last weekend was that some quilters really like to use patterns. I rarely do and I think it’s because I like to figure things out and also I think it’s because I’m a little bit cheap. I guess when I go into a quilting shop I’d like to spend my money on fabric over a pattern every time. I also like the aesthetic of patchwork which is something that you can figure out. So this design didn’t seem too tricky and also looked to be a good way to showcase some of the larger prints in the Robots line.
The quilt is about 36″ square and is a gift for a friend’s baby. I quilted it with wavy lines which might be my new favorite way to quilt — since I am free-motioned challenged — so prepare yourself to see more wavy lines in the future. I ended up liking the layout so much I’ve used it in two larger quilts where I wanted to showcase the fabrics. Maybe I’ll show you those tomorrow with some guidelines for figuring out a design like this, anyone interested in that?
I returned this morning from a fantastic weekend in Colorado. Amanda Jean was the guest speaker at a quilt retreat at the Inn at City Park in Fort Collins and I was lucky enough to go. When Amanda Jean announced she would be speaking at the retreat I offhandedly told Stefan that would be fun. A month or two later — after a weekend where he was away with the guys — he told me that I should go, seriously. One side benefit of a traveling husband is that he has miles you can use to go to quilt retreats.
What a wonderful weekend we had. It was so great to meet Amanda Jean in person after being friends for years. Plus I got to meet a bunch of other great women, some bloggers, some not. It was so much fun. I learned a whole bunch — you are allowed to carry-on a sewing machine — and got so much sewing done that I’ve nearly completed a pretty big quilt top. Papa did such a great job flying solo that Katie said it was okay if I needed to stay away longer. Coming home though, was wonderful too. I kissed Tristan in his bed when I got home at about 1:30 AM and he rolled over and smiled and said Mama in a dreamy little voice. It just melted my heart. So, now I’m back at it, housework, school, you know, the schedule. But this week I thought I’d share some quilts I’ve recently made that never got blogged. And maybe by Friday I’ll have that quilt top done. Happy Monday everyone and see you back here tomorrow.
We went low-key this year and boy am I glad. I have tonsillitis — again! — and Tristan has some kind of virus with a bad cough so we weren’t up for anything too high-key. But if we were going to go apple picking this year it had to be this weekend because the apples are just about picked out. We had a great time even though we didn’t get too many apples. The urchins climbed the trees and then we all trekked the mile to the pumpkin patch where we picked some fun ones. Today Tristan and I are hunkering down for a day of movie watching and snuggling while Katie is at school. I’m hoping that tomorrow we’ll both be feeling a lot better.
Katie has been working on her first quarter project for school. The assignment is to make an Autumn Collage consisting of anything she sees outside that is indicative of the changing seasons. Papa laughed when he learned the project details since he said it seemed that it was tailor-made for our first-grader. I actually, had a different reaction. I kind of felt like, why are they having them do this? It just seemed so basic and obvious. I mean don’t all first-graders already know all about this? It’s all my urchins want to talk about.
Then when Melissa was here we were talking about some of the crazy stuff Katie says and does — and how Katie and Melissa’s son were totally cut from the same cloth — and where it comes from. And somehow that conversation and a walk in the woods with my mom and my urchins gave me some insight. Lots of kids don’t take walks in the woods. They don’t have a “clubhouse” under a willow tree. They don’t have a nature table overflowing with feathers, acorns, leaves, bark, and turtle shells. They aren’t looking for that heron, and the prickle ball tree, and the cat-tails, and that place where the lizard hides on their walk to school. In fact they probably don’t walk to school at all even though they likely live within a mile of the building.
And you know what I realized, I’m doing a good job. And if you are a reader of this blog, I’m guessing that you are doing a good job too. I spend a lot of time agonizing over how I could have been a better mother in this or that situation. It turns out though, the times I lose my temper, or forget the right gym shoes, or don’t read three chapters before bed just fall by the wayside and what remains is those walks in the woods, those times when we’re digging in the garden. My girl knows the difference between an oak and a maple. She knows that you can eat johnny-jump-ups and rose petals. She knows about the moon, the stars, the seasons.
And I used to think that it wasn’t such a big deal, but now I realize it is. It turns out that as we wander through their childhoods these urchins of mine are following me and paying attention to what attracts my attention along the path. They notice. It was like a little lightbulb went on in my heart when I saw that all the time we take to show them how wonderfully beautiful, and amazing, and awe inspiring the world is has been worth it. So, the first-quarter project really was no big deal for Katie — Mommy, do you think I can label each leaf with the tree name and also what animals eat the nuts? — but it turns out it was kind of a big deal for me.
Last week of the summer share. Now we’re onto four weeks of an autumn share before we’re done.
CSA Bag Contents: butternut squash, potatoes, garlic, peppers, Hakurei turnips, Choi Sum, rosemary, collard greens, eggplant, cherry tomato, broccoli
See what we got in CSA 2008 Week 20.
What’s your recipe for a good weekend? Mine seems to include some good friends, some good food, some knitting, a few meltdowns, and a whole lot of laughter. It turns out though that a good weekend for me does not include much photography. I guess I’m too busy enjoying it. Melissa and her boys arrived at our house last Thursday and I pretty much smiled all weekend long. Thank you internets for giving me such a good friend. My mother said to me on Monday, I can see why you and Melissa are friends. and I totally agree. Now though, we’ve all collapsed in our respective homes and are recovering from a weekend well lived. Check in with you guys later this week.
CSA Bag Contents: sweet potatoes, onions, peppers, celery, arugula, mizuna, green beans, kohlrabi, radishes, Juliet tomatoes, heirloom pie pumpkin, eggplant
See what we got in CSA 2008 Week 19.
