More FMQ on Batik pre-cut Kit

This quilt from a John Flynn pre-cut kit has been going on and on and on and on. It seems like I keep losing momentum. But I am determined to complete it this year so I can count it in my Year in Review post for 2018. This post continues chronicling my FMQ efforts. Past posts are:

January 10, 2018 where I discuss curved piecing
February 23, 2018 where I decide on a block arrangement
March 1, 2018 where I challenge myself to get a backing from too little fabric
October 24, 2018 where I began FMQ

I had paused when I was uninspired as to what pattern to use for the "viking helmet horn" shaped areas. Since other spaces looked like petals I decided to bisect the steer horns with a central vein so they would look more like leaves. The more I doodled, the more I liked the idea of quilting each side of the "leaf" differently. The viking helmet horns were definitely camouflaged. I use marker on paper printouts or white board marker on sheets inserted in vinyl page protectors.

These have the contours of hosta leaves per plantsgalore.com and I noted a similarity in shape. The ones in my quilt are not so symmetric and are slightly stylized but the general outlines are there. 

There is a quilt pattern by Judy Niemeyer called Fire Island Hosta where she treats each half of the leaf differently. I drew from both idea sources.

In my October 24, 2018 post I tried feathers, wishbone loops, and more flower petals, but none spoke "leaf" to me. I tried adding curved radiating veins on one side and swirls on the other and somehow it seemed to work. Veins on both sides would have resulted in larger areas of high density than I like. I figured out a continuous path and numbered it. 

1. Up the central vein from the base
2. Return down slightly offset from the central vein
3. Swirl waves out CW hugging perimeter, then inward CCW, up from base to tip (~3 waves)
4. Return in the ditch down along the opposite (vein) outside
5. Create curve baseline for veined half
6. Back and forth curves up the sub-veins to the leaf tip
7. Return in the ditch down the opposite (swirl) leaf side toward the base
8. At right angles stitch in the ditch to the center to begin next leaf of the set of four

I chanted:
Center up, tip down, CW swirl out, repeat, vein side down, curve base, back 'n forth up, swirl side down, return home.

Sometimes the swirls were on the convex side and sometimes on the concave side, but always on the left. When I experimented with mirror images to be consistently concave or convex, those steer horns reappeared, so I committed to asymmetry. Here is my practice piece of the stitching lines on fabric. The actual cloth version is larger than my drawing so I think it will take four swirls on the left side of the leaf. I would like to keep the "veins" on the right side more curved so I need to stay aware of that, also.

There are forty of these "leaves" on my quilt so, with practice, I may have it exactly as I want it by the final one. I've completed slightly fewer than half of them. But for now I am linking up to Let's Bee Social #251.

Whose Baby Am I?

This is a cloth book for my seven month old grandson William. The book came from a panel printed by Elizabeth's Studio. I  gravitate toward the soft look of fabrics of this mill who adapts the artwork of talented artists into screen printed images. This collection of baby animals is from the work of artist John Butler.

Other examples that I have made from Elizabeth's Studio fabric are a cloth book My Baby's Day post for 12/17/12, a cloth book Little Baby Signs post for 12/16/14, and a pair of sepia toned seashore print pillowcases post for 8/17/16.

Sometimes the page numbers for a cloth book are printed outside the area of the book page itself as they were in Whose Baby Am I?. I actually prefer this method since then the images can be used as quilt blocks without the pesky numbers being there. But I needed to devise a way of recalling what order those pages should be in once I'd cut off the page information. I trim each page except for the bottom where the number is. I then "assemble" the raw book and take cell phone photos that help me to know what goes where. The front and back covers are easy since they are slightly larger. The middle is a giveaway too for this book, since it spans two pages. Here is the book sequenced as it should be, with a wide white paginated margin at the base.

I can safely trim off that larger lower margin, since I have a record now, and sandwich the two book layers, face to face with a piece of batting to give it a bit of substance. I also layer in some crinkle material on Etsy or crinkle material by American Felt and Craft for baby and pet toys in the cover stack or in the middle stack to make some noise for the baby when he plays with the book. I was whizzing along since these books do not take long to make and on my third layered stack, the middle one, I noticed something wrong when I went to turn it right side out. I had placed both printed pages facing the same direction instead of face to face. The wrong side of that zebra page would have been showing. Whoops. 

It is amazing how something that you can sew by zipping around the edges in less that 2 minutes can take 15 or more minutes to pick out. Because the back side was batting, the stitches sunk in and made picking them out more difficult, since I could not work from both sides easily. Ugh! Once I had right sides facing, I did a double check to be sure I had not put one in upside down. But I had not. Whew!

Turned, steamed, and edges top stitched, the completed Whose Baby Am I? book looks cute and crinkles adorably. I hope William likes it.

Linking up to Main Crush Monday #138 and Let's Bee Social #249.

William's Stocking Completed

Last week I began knitting on a vintage pattern Christmas stocking for my grandson William, now 6½ months old. He is a very happy baby as can be seen in the following photo. I had gotten so far as his name in the top band which I showed in my post for  October 31, 2018. The stocking is knit from the top down.

Since then I have completed the entire stocking at the rough rate of a band a day more or less. The straight needle portion consisted of three multi-color bands –  children, Santas, and trees. The children band I did in one day – probably on the order of four hours or so. My penciled notes on the right are the length of yarn I used in units of length of knitting needle, letting them flow freely rather than winding them on bobbins. This was one of the tips I cited in my December 17, 2014 post about knitting a stocking for William's older sister Vivian. 

I still found the Santa band the most difficult; I had to take a break and do it over two days. The lead pencil dots tell me which end of the row I am starting on. The green highlighter helps me track my progress since yellow was already used in the past.

The trees are a cinch. They are the most straight-forward and least problematic. I used the red and the green yarns straight from the main skeins.

I kept my promise to myself and sewed in the loose yarn ends as I completed each band and was glad I did. I remembered to block the band portion while it was flat and before the heel and foot had been started. After blocking however, I forgot to take a picture of it flat before I started the double pointed needle portion where I knit in rounds instead of rows. The next photo shows the flat stocking body as much as I could get.  Imagine that the tree band extends all the way out to the sides instead of being folded under.

After dividing the stitches out onto double pointed needles, I started to knit the white heel.

This is a view of that heel from the other side, showing how the rear seam extends down the back of the stocking only to the foot portions.

In knitting the heel, the instructions were to slip the first stitch of each row. This does give a nice smooth edge. It is on these two white edges that stitches for the gusset are picked up after the heel is turned.

The next photo shows a completed foot. The pickup on the white heel with the green yarn does go smoothly with that slipped stitch edge. Keeping track of the decreases at the green instep needed some kind of help since there are decrease on two consecutive rounds and then one round that is knitted without decreases.

I keep using the same set of annotated instructions from past stockings and so I need to devise ways to know if my markings pertain to progress on the current stocking or earlier ones. On the triplets of decrease rows, I previously wrote them out as I did them. This time I added circles to keep track of my progress. Similarly in the foot instructions I made a separate set of hashmarks in pencil but labeled it William. If another grand child arrives on the scene I guess I will have to adopt squares and hashmarks of another pen color.

Since I had followed my own advice about sewing in loose ends at the completion of each band, sewing the rear seam was not onerous. I had also left long tails of color at each band and so could use each of them to sew the rear seam in a matching color yarn without generating further loose ends. Here is the completed William stocking with both the name side and the year of birth side facing. 

This is the seventh stocking I have knitted. I have repeated links for earlier ones in the following list.  Some links tell of history and tradition, some are tips, and some contain both.

December 31, 2011 Jeremy and Carrie
December 10, 2014 Autumn (born in October 2012 - I was late completing hers)
December 17, 2014 Vivian (April birthday)
December 28, 2015 Isaiah (July birthday - completed before the stroke of midnight Christmas eve)
November 29, 2016 Lillian (May birthday)
October 31, 2018  William (April birthday) - post on beginning his stocking

The original 1945 pattern can be downloaded for free from
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/christmas/1945-stocking.htm.
Linking up now with Main Crush Monday #137.

Halloween Decor

It was Halloween morning yesterday and I had not yet gotten around to decorating. Of necessity, I decided to go low impact this year but the decor still came out pleasing. I went through my quilts and had even forgotten about some of them. I draped these two over the back of the sofa. The link for the one on the left is in post for January 25, 2012 and the link for one on the right is in post for October 31, 2017. The one on the right will stay out for Thanksgiving.

I draped this haunted houses vignette (post for October 20, 2017) over the back of a rocker chair.

Although I'd completely forgotten about this one, it fit perfectly in the window, grinning out on trick or treaters. I hung it with suction  cups that have hooks. Its post is dated March 31, 2014.

 

My husband pulled our decoration storage bins from the attic. I pulled out my collection of pumpkins in a variety of fabrics and styles and displayed them on our hearth.

My large copper Jack o' Lantern is nestled on the floor beside the hutch, wearing a smiling, big, toothy grin.

I propped a painting I'd bought a few years ago in the other window with a piano light back-illuminating the moon.

Candy was waiting beside the front door for the trick or treaters – Hershey Kisses in a wooden pumpkin bowl and Milky Ways and Kit Kats in a black cat basket. Whoops! I just noticed that the kitty's witch hat is askew. I must fix that before next year.

Here is the view of our front door from the outside.

As the trick or treaters walked up our front walkway they passed orange lights to their left.

The scene is a bit more dramatic at night.  It conveys we are open for candy but is not intimidating. I don't do scary.

Distributing the decor took less than an hour. I must admit though, that my husband's time to get the bins from the attic for me is not included.