Jul 21, 2013

Stitching Saturday

My whole married life I have heard from my mother in law that you shouldn't stitch on Sundays, so let's talk about what I did yesterday, ok?

I finished quilting section 4 of 4 on Matt's college quilt!  Those last few pieces were quite a slog, and I am not even doing anything fancy, mostly sewing along the seams.  So then I sewed the sections together, and spent the afternoon working on hand sewing the backing down.

Since I had the pieces all together, and Matt was hanging out in his room, I took the opportunity to try it out on him for size.  I knew I could not put the border all the way around like the sample in the book, because his bed at school will be a single bed.  We decided though that his 6ft 6in self needs a quilt a bit longer than 65 inches long and I will be adding pieces to the top and bottom. He has requested plain black, so I ordered more of that and will also use that for the binding.

On the knitting front, I made Ishbel for the second round of Camp Loopy, which is a virtual knitting camp sponsored by the Loopy Ewe.

I have ordered yarn for round 3, but I am pretty sure I won't get my project done.  I plan to knit River Walk by Romi Hill, but I have a different exciting project that might make me miss my Loopy deadline!  Back at the beginning of July, Amy Herzog announced a new system she is working on for making sweater patterns that are personalized to your own measurements- Custom Fit. I am super excited about it, and volunteered to be a beta tester.  So I will be testing this program out and knitting a sweater from my own personalized pattern through most of August. (See how nicely I live in denial about the fact I will also be taking my baby off to college then too?)  This program will be great for every knitter, of course, but especially for those of us who are really far from the average figure.  Sometimes all of my scribbled in changes, on top of the "knit in this pattern while AT THE SAME time doing these neck decreases", all of these things at once just blow my mind a little bit. I am excited to get a pattern that makes my scribbling obsolete!

I have been swatching- I think I will make a simple v-neck cardigan with maybe just one row of lace along the button bands in the front.  I found a lovely lace pattern called Holland Lace in Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Stitches.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday and with Sew Darn Crafty.

6 comments:

Quilter Kathy said...

You are making such great progress on the college quilt...way to go! Hope you enjoyed your stitching! Thanks for linking up!

An Oasis in the Desert said...

My MIL had all kinds of "rules" for Sunday, too, but I just didn't tell her what I might be up to....lol! On your son's quilt, is that a lap-quilting technique, where you quilt the individual blocks and then attach them all together in the back? I've always wanted to try doing that.

scraphappy said...

Sounds like the college quilt will be just the right size. It is always nice to have feedback along the way and know it will be well loved when it is done.

libbyquilter said...

reading your post brought back memories of when i was doing the same; making a college quilt for "my baby" and trying not to think about how life changing that was all going to be.

your knitting looks wonderful. i especially love that last bit . . . i've not learned how to knit but may give it a go someday as there are so many pretty patterns out there.

happy slow stitch sunday
:-)
libbyQ

Teresa in Music City said...

What a great opportunity!!! I'm thinking you will thoroughly enjoy the beta testing, and as others have said, it will help take your mind off you baby going to school. Your finished shawl is really lovely!!!

Michelle said...

Ishbel is GORGEOUS!