by Sarah

Friendship Quilt Revival...

As I mentioned yesterday, when I moved to RI in 2007, my wonderful knitting friends made me a quilt to remember them by. Fast forward several years, add in two naughty dogs, and the quilt got a hole in it.  I sadly didnt take a picture, because I was just too mad. Basically, they ripped 3.5 squares, right in the center of the quilt, and really ruined the batting.

Earlier this week, I decided to work on some restoration.  I took the whole backing off, and then broke it out into several pieces.  Luckily, when gifted to me, the girls also gave me some extra squares and fabric. I think the idea was I could make throw pillows or something. But I didnt, I just threw them into my stash and let them sit. BOY AM I GLAD I DID.  I had plenty of squares to choose from to replace the ripped ones, and still 4 leftover.  So I decided not only to fix the hole, but to use the backing and extra squares to make a sashing for the quilt to be bigger.  Now it will fit on my full sized guest bed, and when the girls come to visit (hint, hint) they can sleep under our hybrid creation. 

Here is the revamped top with triple sashing:

Also, everyone signed the back, so before I cut it up for sashing, I salvaged all the signatures, and incorporated them into this fancy backing:

And off it goes tomorrow to the machine quilter, so that it will have a nice firm uniform quilting job to withstand the use of having it on a bed all the time.  When it comes back later in May, I will bind it with the leftover flower material from the new backing.

Sewing updates...

My back has been just a little too sore to sit for any length of time the past couple of weeks. ENTER...Sewing. I have a tall dining room table, so its something I do standing up. 

At knit night this week, I started taking apart the amazing quilt a bunch of friends made me when I moved here, because the naughty dogs ripped it a while ago. More on that later. Of course, while I was looking through my fabrics stash for the leftover quilt squares to make the repairs, I revisited lots of fabrics.

When i came across one particular one, i was inspired to make myself a bag for the farmers market.  This is either the cutest, cleverest farmers market bag ever...OR just ridiculously dorky.  Either way, the bag construction is quite sound, and it will be fun to try it out tomorrow.

Close-up of the fabric in the form of the tiny wallet i put on a leash in the pocket, so I wouldnt loose my cash:

Heres's the bag hanging up showing off where the wallet lives, showing off how it can stand on its own (yay for interfacing the bag and the lining), and showing off its fun inside.

One thing is for sure, its nice and sturdy, between the padded handles, and all that interfacing, double stitching and topstitching, this baby is going to hold a LOT of heavy market loot. Or, you know, a couple dozen bricks.

I'll be back soon with some pictures of my quilt repairs.

More spinning...

I finished this up spinning this spinners hill batt this wekeend, and started spinning up its cousins from the same supplier - in rusts and olives.  More on that after its completed.

I also finished knitting up that hat (Jared Flood's Quincy Pattern), and started a matching cowl with the rest of the yarn. 

Hi!

Murphy is just popping in to say "Hi!" and tell you he really likes exploring at the beach.

What's Up?

I am around and crafting, and apparently, just too lazy to post.

I have been spinning a lot the past week or so:

This is the first yarn from my newly acquired Majacraft Little Gem traveling wheel. I brought it to the RI Spinners Guild meeting last Saturday, spun up most of the singles, and finished off the yarn as a 3 ply over the weekend. The fiber was a gift from Jody, and just said 8 oz wool roving on the label. After i ran it through the drum carder to fluff it up and blend it a bit, it was more like 6.5 oz.  It is pretty soft, approximately a bulky worsted, and will be used to knit a gift for a friend sometime in the near future.

Two things I should say about the new wheel. (1) Its super light and easy to set up.  I am already dreaming about taking it with me on my next vacation for some relaxation spinning in the sunshine. (2) It handles plying really well. Much better than my Schact Matchless, which has always seemed to hate plying.  For my next larger spinning project, I may spin on the Matchless, but ply on the Little Gem.

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The rest of these yarns are just tiny batts i had lying around, all under 2 ounces, that I spun up and two plyed on my Kundert Spindle. I was lamenting over what to do with such tiny pieces of yarn (pretty much less than 100 yards all around) when a new friend suggested a "wavy blanket she had seen around."  I thought about it and decided she was quite right, the Lizard Ridge blanket from Knitty 2006 was not only a pattern I had liked since it came out, but possibly a really good way to use up some of my smaller balls of handspun yarn.  I cast on a swatch (ie a square) and decided to knit it in strips of fabric double the length of the suggested square size. 

In other news:

I knit a sock. Its Trekking XXL. I expect I will be casting the second one on in the next couple of days.

I knit these DK weight version of Suzies Reading Mitts for my friend Margaret with some leftover gray superwash I had in my stash. It is reported that Margaret likes them a lot, so I'm glad.

AND I'm also most of the way through knitting what I fervently hope will be my final Central Park Hoodie - CPH VI.  And by most of the way through, I mean the body is finished and the shoulders are seamed, and I picked up around both armholes and made capsleeves that are waiting to be turned into full length sleeves. Luckily the recipent has short arms, so they should be done fairly quickly, as soon as I get motivated to pick it back up.  The spinning has been really distracting!