Disappearing Pinwheels

On Friday, the church quilting group is going to make Disappearing Pinwheel blocks. A kindly unknown quilter was cleaning out her stash and gave us, among other things, a package of 10" squares. So we are going to use those with some contrasting fabric to make these blocks.

If you look on line you can find more than one explanation on how to make them. Last week, I created a sample and we spent the morning arranging the blocks in a way that we liked. I believe that there are at least 11 arrangements of the blocks that produce something pleasing.

So I sewed around the edges of 2 squares from my stash, and cut them on the diagonal.

I cut the pinwheel block (after sewing) into 9 blocks.

After we played with them, we ended up with this.

Yesterday, I took the good fabric and made 2 more.

My camera was not doing what I wanted. The dark fabric is royal blue with dots of shades lighter blues and turquoise. The precut blocks are yellows greens and blues.

I see a seam I think I need to straighten, a bit.

I still see snow everywhere. I am tired of boots and heavy coats so I invited some spring in.

Amazing how much pleasure $3.99 can bring.

A friend asked if I could make a sweater for a baby girl arriving in her world, soon.

This is the 5 hour Baby Sweater. I have no idea how long it actually took, because I wasn't knitting continually on it until it was finished, but it was pretty quick. I need to steam it a little to get the button bands to behave. Then I will add buttons, and it will be ready.

The foster cat is learning how to live the good life. I found him stretched out in a sunbeam, this morning.

I hope you find a sunbeam, this week.

Knitting in Hope of Spring

After a hint of spring, we were back in the freezer, last week. My sewing consisted of working on the church quilt.  However, chilly afternoons are perfect for spring knitting by the fire.

First up are some fingerless mitts. It may be spring, but it morning walks will still require a little warmth for hands.

They still need blocking and their ends woven in, but they are wonderfully soft. The pattern is Barn Swallow Fingerless Mitts by Cheryl Toy.  The yarn is Drops Baby Alpaca Silk. It is always fun to make a project from one ball of luxury yarn. This yarn is very soft.

This spring, there will be lots of water as all our snow melts. Little boys need to wear rubber boots, and rubber boots need warm boot socks.

I should have them finished, today. The pattern is Purl Soho Toddler Socks. The yarn is Opal Sock Yarn, left over from some big boy socks. I am currently playing yarn chicken to finish, but I have some similar yarn I can use to finish the toe. I need a second pair for when the first pair gets wet.

I have returned to my Wild Swan Shawl.  I made a mistake and I didn't have the brain power to find it, previously.  I recently pulled it out, and found the mistake, fixed it, and it is proceeding, slowly.

I am hoping the yarn will show the pattern better, after it is blocked. However, you can kind of see the feathers starting to form.

I should have chosen something lighter in colour, but this was in my stash. I am trying to knit down my stash and use all the lovely yarns I have. My bins seem to be full, so I shouldn't need much for a while.

I Should Have Known Better

This is the outside of my new bag. It just has a small problem. The fold is suppose to be where the cut edge is. This piece will have to be used to make the base of some future bag, because it won't work for this bag. As I was cutting it, I was thinking about which side the fold was suppose to be on, so I have no idea how I managed to cut it backwards.

The good news is that I have more of the black twill. The other good news is that I cut the pockets exactly correct. That's a good thing, because I only have half a metre of this fabric.

Because I wanted to fussy cut the fabric, to make sure I got the cats on the pockets, I made a full pattern piece, and cut it flat.

The second pocket, which seems to be almost exactly the same, is cut properly, too. I have full cats for both sides.

This is Tula Pink Tabby Lane that I have been hoarding for awhile. I had a hard time finding it because nobody around here seemed to be selling it. I found it while I was on a shop hop, at a shop out of town.

My incremental bag making continues. These will have their interfacings fused, and then I will attach the lining, before I go back to the outer pieces, which have to be recut.

Last week, I made a pieced binding, for the church quilt. There wasn't enough of the jelly roll the top was made from to make the full binding, so I took some scraps from my stash and some from a friend's stash

The pieces at the top are from the quilt and the pieces at the bottom are the volunteers. I used pieces 8" or longer, and cut the full width of fabric pieces in half.

It is surprising how long it takes to sew little pieces of binding together to make about 300 inches.

This is the end of a morning's sewing. The binding is now trimmed, folded in half and rolled, to go onto the quilt, tomorrow. I will post a picture of the completed quilt.