Knitting Finishes

I finished weaving in the yarn tails on these socks this morning. The knee socks are for my sister-in-law, and I've been working on them for quite some time. My SIL is taller than I am and needs a 19" leg, so no wonder they took so long.

The baby socks were an experiment in knitting two socks on two circulars. I tried this technique two or three years ago, and I can't remember now whether I ever figured it out or not, but I didn't stick with it. I finally took a class a month or two ago at my local yarn shop, and wa la! Success!

 I've been knitting socks and small accessories for about four years now and wanted to move up to knitting an adult garment. My local yarn shop owner suggested a vest, so I pestered until she found someone to teach the class.

The pattern is a freebie from Paton's, their Chunky Knit Vest, I think. There were lots of learning opportunities here--sizing and fitting a garment, making a gauge swatch, invisible seaming for the sides and shoulder seams, picking up and adding a seed stitch trim, and buttonholes and buttons. The best part is that it actually fits me. 

I'm working on a new sweater now from Knitting Pure and Simple, top down, no side seams, no buttonholes, and no set in sleeves. Easy!

The shawlette class presented another learning opportunity--lace edging. I had fun making this, but it was an exercise in patience because I used fingering weight yarn, and it just took a long time.

I took my daughter-in-law to the yarn shop and showed her the model of the shawlette, then told her if she liked it, she could pick out the yarn and I'd make it for her birthday. That was in February, her birthday was in April, and I just barely made that deadline.

After I finished it, I decided I liked it well enough to make one for myself. I've added it to my arm-length list of knitting projects to do.

The yarn for this shawlette was Ella Rae Lace Merino. I love this yarn! Can't wait to make some socks with it.

Thread Case

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! It's been a cool, rainy day here in Maine, but the sun finally came out a little while ago. I spent all day in my sewing room, finishing up this thread case for a workshop I'm assisting with on Wednesday.

I've wanted to make one of these for several years, and I'm so pleased it's finally finished. The pattern directions were clear, and the case was easy to make. I don't know why I didn't just do it a long time ago.

The fabric of the case is quilted, and it closes with a piece of grosgrain ribbon wrapped around the case and held shut with velcro.

It unfolds to reveal five vinyl pockets that hold up to 48 spools of thread plus a few sewing necessaries.

 

The case opens to 10" x 30" and folds to a nicely compact 8" x 10".

The tan fabric under the zipper is a piece of ultrasuede or faux suede. Thread tails are fed through the ultrasuede, and you can easily thread a needle without removing the spools from their pockets by simply pulling the thread through the ultrasuede.

The sewing necessaries pocket is about 6 inches, so there's plenty of room for scissors, needles, thimble, measuring tape, other notions, and of course, a little chocolate. Fabulous!

The pattern also contains directions for a smaller case that holds up to 12 spools of thread and folds up to 5" x 5".

Credit where credit is due: Thread Dispenser/ Sewing

Case, designed by Patterns by Annie

An Apple A Day

At last, a finish! Actually, I finished a small strippy in February, but I don't bother to post photos of those anymore because I've made so many. Anyway, every year our quilt chapter, Tacoma Lakes Quilters, issues a challenge; and this year's was to make a small 16-block quilt from Maggie Ball's book, Bargello Quilts with a Twist.

These fabrics were from a kit I purchased several years ago on a quilt shop hop. The kit was supposed to make up into a quilt with four basket blocks, but I never was crazy about the pattern. I thought the fabrics would work just fine for my bargello, and that's a few more yards finally out of the stash. This quilt will make a nice little table cover for my son's kitchen table. He's a foodie, and he has red accents in his kitchen.

Bonnie Hunter Comes to Maine

It has been too long since I posted to the blog. Life is busy, and I've been doing lots of quilting and knitting but just haven't taken the time to post about it.

The Pine Tree Quilters Guild in Maine contracted with Bonnie Hunter quite some time ago to come and teach a couple of workshops and do a trunk show for us. I am a big fan of Bonnie's; and after what seemed like an interminable wait (for me), she finally arrived this week.

I took her workshop for the Jamestown Landing quilt yesterday and had a blast. Jamestown Landing is one of the quilts from Bonnie's book, String Fling. I've been quilting a long time, and her book explains well enough how to do the piecing for this quilt, so my objective in taking the workshop was to learn more about the methods that she uses to piece her quilts; and I was not disappointed. I get so used to doing things a certain way that I don't stop to think if there might be a better way to do it, so I had some lightbulb moments during the workshop.

Bonnie took lots of pictures of our workshop and uploaded them to both her blog and her Facebook page, so you can see more there.

We received instruction on the Easy Angle tool to make half square triangle units, and she also showed us how she makes her string blocks. Jamestown Landing is composed entirely of these half square triangle units and small string blocks, arranged in an unexpected way. I only finished 14 or 15 string blocks and maybe about 70 half square triangle units, so I have lots of work left to do.

Today Bonnie did her trunk show for the membership. She is a very enjoyable speaker and shared lots of information about her scrap users system and the way she actually chooses and uses her scraps.

Her trunk show was marvelous. I thought about taking photos, but I really just wanted to listen to the lecture and look at the quilts. Besides, the photos of the quilts in her books are much better than any I might have taken at the presentation, and I have all of her books.

Bonnie has one more workshop scheduled for tomorrow in Augusta, then she'll be moving on to her next engagement. I asked her yesterday if she'd been to all 50 states to teach, and she said she'd been everywhere except the Dakotas. If you ever have an opportunity to see Bonnie Hunter, don't miss it.

Circle Wedge Tree Skirt, Part 2

Cutting the Wedges. You need to cut at least 8 wedges from each of your strip sets to obtain the correct number of wedges for the tree skirt. You need 40 wedges to create one tree skirt.

If you're using a 10-degree wedge ruler, you'll need 36 wedges, which means you'll have 4 wedges left over. Extra wedges can be set aside for later use in a scrappy tree skirt.

Place the circle wedge ruler on your first strip set with the narrow end at the top of your strips. This is an "up cut". All the up cuts will be used to make Tree Skirt #1.

Align the 45 degree marking on your ruler with one of the seams in your strip set. Slide the ruler as close to the end of your strip set as you can, and make sure your fabric strips extend beyond the upper and lower edges of your ruler.

Every time you make an up cut, you'll need to place the ruler in the same position on all 10 strip sets. You might want to make yourself a note as a reminder.
 

If you are unable to place the 45 degree marking of your ruler on a seam line, align the 45 degree mark parallel to one of your seams. Then place a piece of painter's tape along one of the seam lines and make a note to yourself where to line up the tape on the next cut. Remember, every up cut must be cut the same way.
 

After you have cut the first wedge, flip the ruler around so that the narrow end is at the bottom of the strip set. This is a "down cut". Again, align the 45 degree marking on the ruler with one of the seam lines in the strip set. The long edge of your ruler may or may not line up with the edge of the wedge you just cut. It is more important to have the 45 line on one of your seam lines or parallel to one of them.  

Make a note of the placement if necessary so you can repeat the exact placement on all 10 strip sets.

All the down cuts will be used to make Tree Skirt #2.

Continue cutting wedges from your strip sets, flipping the ruler after every cut. You should have at least 4 up cuts and 4 down cuts.

If you are able to cut 9 wedges from your strip sets, you can use the extra wedges from several different strip sets to make a scrappy tree skirt.

Up Cut and Down Cut

Using either the up cut wedges or the down cut wedges, start sewing wedges together in pairs, matching the top and bottom edges of the wedges. No other matching of seams is required along the length of the seam. Remember these are bias edges, so place as many pins as necessary along the seam line.

Continue sewing pairs of strips together until all 40 wedges are sewn together in a circle. Do not sew the last two wedges together because you'll need an opening to go around your Christmas tree. 

Press all of your seams in one direction. Press (up and down), don't iron (back and forth)!

Now make your second tree skirt. 

Quilting. I used a regular weight batting for my tree skirt, probably Warm and Natural, but you could use a thinner batting, like Thermore or Pellon fleece, or maybe even a flannel if you wanted. If you plan to quilt your tree skirt yourself on a domestic sewing machine, quilting in the ditch will suffice. You'll want to use a walking foot. You can start by quilting in the ditch every 5 or 6 wedges to secure the layers, then go back and quilt in the ditch along every seam line. I have a long arm, and I loaded my skirt on a square backing and used a pantograph to quilt my skirt. 

Binding.  Because the outer edge of your tree skirt is a curved edge, you must use a bias binding. According to the original directions that I had, about a yard of binding is required for one tree skirt. I did not add ties to my skirt; but if you wanted to, you could use extra binding or ribbon.There is a good tutorial illustrating a method for cutting bias binding strips here.

Circle Wedge Tree Skirt, Part 1

We're having another snowstorm today, with another 8-12 inches of wet, heavy snow predicted.  A perfect day to be inside quilting, knitting, and blogging.

I've hardly sewed at all the last week or two, so virtually no progress has been made on my Easy Street mystery. I'm too busy taking classes at my local yarn shop. Homework is required, so I've been very busy knitting--a scarf, a shawlette, a vest, an intarsia pillow, and a pair of socks. I decided to give two socks on two circulars another try, and I'm liking it much better.

Late last year several readers asked where they could find the pattern for the Christmas tree skirts I made for my two sons for Christmas. I took that class online at Quilt University, and one of the readers told me that the woman who authored those lessons passed away. I contacted Carol Miller, owner of QU, and was told that Nyla Morrison did indeed pass away four or five years ago. Because the Fingers of Fire Tree Skirt class is no longer offered at QU, I asked for and received permission to write a blog tutorial for those who were interested.

Circle Wedge Tree Skirt

*** Please read all of the instructions for Parts 1 and 2 before you begin.

These instructions will produce two 50" tree skirts with the fabric order reversed in the second skirt. In the example at left, the white fabric is in the center of one skirt, and the same fabric appears around the outer edge of the second skirt. 

Supplies. The only item required for construction of the tree skirts, other than your normal sewing items, is a 9- or 10-degree circle wedge ruler in a 25" length. 

You can buy a 9-degree ruler directly from Marilyn Doheny, the inventor of the ruler:
http://dohenypublications.mybigcommerce.com/25-9-degree-circle-wedge-ruler/
Amazon also has them.
http://www.amazon.com/25-Degree-Circle-Wedge-Ruler/dp/B005MGUHXM
I think Amazon also has the 10-degree rulers, and I believe they're less expensive than the 9-degree rulers. 

The directions are the same for either ruler.  

These rulers used to be made by Omnigrid, so my ruler will look a little different from yours, if you have to purchase a new one. 

You will probably have to add sandpaper dots, felt dots, True Grips or something similar to the underside of your ruler to keep it from sliding around when you're cutting out the wedges. True Grips work better than anything else I've tried. If you're unable to find them in your LQS, you can buy them here.

You may also need a walking foot if you plan to quilt your skirt on a domestic sewing machine. 

Choosing Fabric. You can use 6 to 10 fabrics in your tree skirt. I used 9 in the tree skirts I've made. You can use all different fabrics or you can repeat one or more if you wish. Tone on tones and small prints seem to work better than large scale prints. In this photo, I used a medium scale floral with red flowers and white flowers. It appears in the middle of the wedges. I like it, but I wouldn't use a print larger than this. You can decide if you like the effect or if you'd prefer to stick with a smaller scale print. 

I also added a stripe to my fabric set because I thought it was interesting. You can also use washable satin or gold lame, but you might have to back any specialty fabrics with fusible interfacing. 

Yardages and Cutting Requirements. Once you've selected your fabrics, you'll need to choose the order in which they appear in your tree skirt. I found it very helpful to make a fabric layout chart with small pieces of my fabrics taped to a sheet of paper. Next to the fabrics, I annotated how wide to cut my strips. 

You will be cutting 10 identical strips from each of your fabrics, and you'll be sewing 10 identical strip sets. You can choose what widths you'd like to cut your strips, but the width of your strip set must measure at least 19" finished.  

Here are the measurements I used for my tree skirt. If you change the number of fabrics used or the widths of any of the strips from my set of measurements, you will need to recalculate your yardages.

Fabric #1:  3-1/2" finished, cut 10 strips 4" wide, 1-1/4 yard required
Fabric #2:  2" finished, cut 10 strips 2-1/2" wide, 3/4 yard required  
Fabric #3:  1-1/2" finished, cut 10 strips 2" wide, 2/3 yard required
Fabric #4:  1-1/2" finished, cut 10 strips 2" wide, 2/3 yard required
Fabric #5:  2-1/2" finished, cut 10 strips 3" wide, 1 yard required
Fabric #6:  1-1/2" finished, cut 10 strips 2" wide, 2/3 yard required
Fabric #7:  1-1/2" finished, cut 10 strips 2" wide, 2/3 yard required
Fabric #8   2" finished, cut 10 strips 2-1/2" wide, 3/4 yard required
Fabric #9:  3-1/2" finished, cut 10 strips 4" wide, 1-1/4 yard required

In my chart, notice that the total of all the "finished" measurements adds up to 19-1/2", which is fine. Remember, the strip set must measure at least 19" finished. 

The yardage requirements assume a fabric width of 42" across the bolt. If your strips are 40" or shorter, you may need to piece some of your strips to get the correct length. My suggestion is to cut and sew one strip set first and cut out the wedges to see if your strips will be long enough. 

Additional Yardage Requirements.
4 yards backing for 2 tree skirts
4 yards batting for 2 tree skirts
2 yards fabric for binding 2 tree skirts

Making the Strip Sets.  To make a strip set, fold one end of your first strip at a 45 degree angle. Place your second strip right sides together, aligning the top edge of Strip 2 with the bottom of the folded end of Strip 1, and sew the length of the seam.

Fold over the top end of Strip 2, add Strip 3 right sides together, and sew the seam. 

Continue adding the remaining strips in the same manner, remembering to fold each of the preceding ends at a 45 degree angle. Because the circle wedge ruler is placed at an angle on the strip sets, staggering the strips in this manner conserves fabric.

Press all the seams in the same direction. Ensure that each strip is pressed out completely and that you don't have a small fold next to the seams. 

Once you have completed your first strip set, make 9 more exactly like the first.  

Still On Easy Street

We had a doozie of a blizzard over the weekend. It started snowing very early Friday morning and finally wound down about 4:00 Saturday afternoon. Hubby was released at noontime on Friday, so he got home before the worst of the storm hit. I was surprised we never lost power, even with 40 mph winds throughout the storm.  

Today was Monday Sew Day, and the girls came over but didn't stay past lunch time. It started snowing a little before noon, so they were anxious to get home. We wound up getting another two inches of heavy, wet snow on top of the 2 feet or whatever it was from the blizzard. Then Mother Nature topped it all off with a little freezing rain.

I finished a couple more blocks for the Easy Street quilt. That's 5 blocks done, and only 20 more to go! I've had all the block units and setting triangles made since the mystery ended, but I'm taking my time building the blocks because I'm busy with other things. 

Bonnie Hunter has a new mystery quilt called Lazy Sunday starting in the latest issue of Quiltmaker magazine that colors similar to Easy Street, with the addition of hot pink and orange. I've already pulled fabric for it and hope to get started some time in the next couple weeks. I'm glad the next issue isn't for two months.

The last of the 6 little jelly roll quilts got done over the weekend. I was glad to get them out of my hair, but I might pick up some more to do on Wednesday.

I've also been doing a lot of knitting since the beginning of the year. Last August a new yarn shop called Hook Yarn and Stitcher opened in the next town over, and I've been a frequent visitor. I am working on this entrelac scarf from a class I took there. This is an interesting technique to work with, but it took a while to get the hang of it. I ripped it out a bunch of times before I finally got it. I bought 4 skeins of yarn to make a 60" scarf, so I have quite a ways to go. There are no color changes in the scarf, that's just the way the variegated yarn is working up.

Tomorrow I begin a shawlette class, which I'll be giving to my daughter-in-law for her birthday. It has a lace edging which I haven't done before, and I'll learn how to read a chart. More learning opportunities.