Knitting a little ...

Every now and then, my hands are free, so I knit!

I've recently had the time to knit the heel flaps and finish the heel shaping on this fun pair of socks:

Next up: heel gussets and then the foot. Moving right along. Football season should help. Maybe. :-)

Crumb Quilt Top

So,  I recently posted a picture of this work in progress. (See Weekend Stitching here.)

Here are a few more pics. 

I had lots of these ... "crumbs" stitched onto adding-machine paper rolls ... So, now, those crumb quilt rolls (see previous posts here and here) are becoming something!

 

I was trying to figure out what to make with them. 

Baby quilts are fun to make, and baby quilts happen to be my favorite baby shower gift to give, so, baby quilts it is!

Here I'm auditioning these stripes on green and on pale pink, trying to pick a background color.

Turns out, I like both, so I'm making one of each! 

I've got the pieces cut for the pale pink variation, so, that'll be happening soon!

This green one's a quilt top, anxiously awaiting being quilted! (I've got the perfect backing. Time to buy some batting!)

By the way, the stitching-onto-adding-machine-paper is a new idea for me, but good for using up random scraps. Jo's Country Junction mentioned the idea at the end of her blog post here, referencing a blog post from QuiltedTwins -- see their posts about the idea here and here.

After stitching these stripes into this quilt top, I removed the paper from the back of the crumb strips. This was a sort of tedious process, not surprisingly. But it's easy to do while watching a movie, so that's what I did. 

A little patriotic quilt

I rediscovered this partially-finished quilt top when I was looking through fabric this week. I've been needing to make some baby quilts for some friends, and this was just the start and inspiration I needed.

I'm putting together border and backing fabric for the kaleidoscope-style quilt top.

So far, just sneak peeks of this one, since it'll probably end up to be a gift. 

I'll try to post finished pictures soon.

It's fun to get some UFOs (UnFinished Objects!) ready to be used and loved! I'll be linking this post to this week's UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction, one of my favorite quilt blogs.

The Summer Weather is in the Quilt!

The Weather Quilt is still happening!

I recently updated the quilt-in-progress, and it's been a while since I showed any pictures!

Full disclosure: It's been a while since I sewed any weeks-of-weather onto the quilt either ... the little labeled/pinned stacks below each represent a week! 

I try to update a week or two at a time, but somehow, it had been 8 weeks since I did anything! But playing with cute fabrics (closeups below) is always fun!

I've been surprised and amused that I haven't gotten to use any of my bright red fabrics in my quilt. I had them planned for the 100°+ days - of which there are usually several during the summer around here. (Last year, there were 17 days that the weather service recorded temps above 100°. This year: none!)

So, the quilt is coming along. It's getting big. Queen-sized when it's through ... and the quilt top is nearly 75% done!

So, now, I shall have to plan how to do the back of the quilt ... I want to make a little "key" with which colors represent which temperature ranges. And since I've got a variety of fabrics in each color,  (and plenty of leftovers, as always!) I might do some cute "string blocks" to incorporate some of the extra fabric.

And, speaking of leftovers, I've got lots of ideas in my head for using up the scraps that I'd set aside for this project ... I'll have plenty of extras, so those pieces I cut will be a great jumping-off point for whatever quilts I start next year.

I just need to plan some quilting time into my January, so that I actually get this quilted while it's still winter!!!

Weekend stitching

Every now and then, the weekend provides extra time for creativity!

Here's the latest ...