Knitting wars

Well, I'm currently wrestling with three knitting projects as well as thinking about my and Caitlin's entries for the competition for the Quilters' Guild Regional Day next weekend.  I'm teaching a group of Young Quilters, this time we're making reverse applique t shirts but I think I'm there with what I need to do for them.  The theme is Anything Goes, so Caitlin is making a TARDIS from a dress I bought for a night out in November last year, it's a size 16 and I'm now down to a 12, despite my best efforts over the summer holidays, and although I have taken it in it's still too big.  I'm hoping to make a dress for one of Caitlin's dolls from my scrap basket, which for some reason never seems to go down, and I can't bear to throw any out.

My cardigan, though mine will be purple

The two projects I'm working on just now are a lacework cardigan (Meier cardigan) and a cabled tunic.  Both are from delicious Interweave books, the tunic from The Art of Seamless Knitting and the cardigan from Metropolitan Knits, it's the one on the cover.  Both are knitted in the round which I like, minimising on seams to sew up.  Well, the tunic has caused me no end of trouble, I originally cast it on using Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop Aran which I spent a small fortune (for me) on at the just wonderful baa ram ewe in Harrogate when we were down in York on holiday.    I did my tension swatch and it is a fine aran so I had to come down a long way on needle size, but when I began to knit I couldn't see it at all and after a bit of toing and froing with advice from friends online I bit the bullet and ripped it out, sob!  It was then a trip into Dundee to get two huge 400g balls of Wendy Aran with wool which is a nice oatmeal colour, and it's doing fine, though as usually I have to go down about half a mm on the needles because I knit loose.  However, to knit the ribbing for the cardigan I needed a 3.5mm cable needle, now, these apparently don't exist so I needed to go up to 3.75mm and guess what I was knitting the tunic on...  Slipped the tunic onto double pins while I did the ribbing, which was completed last night while watching The Hobbit on DVD, much better viewing the second time round I must admit.  We can't wait until December for part 2 to come out!

Drops 123-21

I was knitting this pair of alpaca gloves in Alpaca Loft's beautiful off white wool, from an Drops Design, a Scandinavian online company who provide the most wonderful free patterns.  However, although I only have a finger and thumb to do on one glove I've stopped, just not inspired at the moment, though I will go back to it when I've got a bit further on with the big projects.

With the cabling for the tunic I photocopied the pattern and colour coded the different instructions, it has made it much easier to follow.

Quilters Guild Scottish Monthly Challenge

The Scottish area challenge for this year on the Yahoo group is a block per month using certain colours.  April was red, May is yellow, June will be blue.  And I've just finished my May block, in my defense I have been working on it and it's just time that ran out...  I don't think these will be completely the end, I was at Bank Street Gallery in Kirriemuir yesterday at Jenny Blair's wonderful exhibition, Jenny, I love your work!  I particularly loved two stitched art pieces, 'Queen of the trees' featuring those most irrepressable of birds, blue tits, and 'wondering' which just has a lovely feel.  So I will probably do more hand embroidery on both but the groundwork is done.

March was Red - the block warmer than the weather

I decided to use the theme of flowers and hand piecing, it's an economic stash busting technique!  I had loads of hexagon templates left over anyway from my Chinese Whispers Quilt (more on that one later!).

I like darker gothicky shades of colours but needed contrast, so the red poppy background was a piece I had from a Seattle Quilt Company sale a while ago.  The flowers and pots reds are from various bits of stash including the first ever fabric I brought for my first ever quilt (a Lynne Edwards cathedral window work) bit from my mum's stash, and the red satin I used to make the cloak for my daughter's Snow White costume.  Dressmakers I salute you!  I've quilted this one but am going to take it apart to do more embroidery on it.  The flowers are straighforward grandmother's flower garden pattern: 6 hexagons in a circle around one central one.

For May I had yellow fabrics but they were a bit peely wally, so I took a gold organza printed with

Why is it upside down?!!!  No idea

gerberas I bought in Austria a few years ago and bondawebbed it on top of a paler pastel yellow print.  The ribbony yellow strips are part of the organza.  It took a bit of patience and unsticking the iron as the glue came right though the organza but I'm happy with the result.  I pieced the daffodils from central hexagons surrounded by hexagons with one point extended, or alternatively diamonds with one point cut off, depending on how you look at it!  I embroidered over with threads from my stash, it's hand worked running stitch but the threads are a variety of machine embroidery thread and DMC cross stitch thread.  It needs more but it's a start.  The stems are chain stitched wool from my stash, a pretty variegated green called Rico Designa Superba Chinee 4ply in #008 green.  I toyed with crocheting and all sorts, thinking chain sitch would be too thin but with wool it works fine.  The yellow for the daffodils was the remnants of Evie's Quilt.

So onwards, just trying to get my sister's blanket finished off and I will feel better then!

Around The World - Quilters' Guild AGM Dundee 2012

This is my 8 year old daughter Caitlin's Australian quilt which she had been working on since Christmas, her answer to the theme of 'Around the World' inspired by a school project on the country and my fabrics brought at my very first Festival on Quilts in Birmingham from Aussie Dreams, these make up most of the territories of Australia on the top right panel and the various animals and Uluru in the bottom left panel.

The rest of the fabric was all bought at the 2011 Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate, the bottom right was a Langa Lapu sun print from The African Fabric Shop.  They are a long time favourite of myself, my daughter and my mother, the owners, Magie and Bob, travel around Africa to source their fabrics directly from the weavers and dyers and each piece is unique.

For the first two panels, Caitlin sewed strips of fabric together then cross cut them to make the backgrounds of squares, using the sizes to give the effect of zooming in from outer space.  In the first panel she appliqued on Australia, New Zealand, Antartica and Indonesia and then appliqued the whole globe onto the dark spacey background.  In the second she used 505 spray to stick the Aussie Dreams fabrics down and appliqued them onto the squares background with a space dyed WonderFil thread she bought at her Quilters Guild Region 16 Regional Day.

In the third panel the sky, land and billabong were strips of fabric sewn together, then all the animals and the rock were appliqued on.  The sun and Uluru are reverse appliqued.

The koala and kangaroo joey were the successful product of my first foray into printing onto fabric with my laser printer with Crafty Computer Paper, who I've used before for inkjet printable fabric.  I printed onto their laser heat transfer paper and we carefully ironed the animals onto white fabric.  I was so nervous because the paper is not cheap, but the results were stunning.  Caitlin then used my Derwent Inktense pencils to colour in the kangaroo joey and a little bit of the koala joey, they are quite grey anyway, and then appliqued them on.

You can't see it, but the quilt is backed with the most fabulous green liquorice allsorts fabric.  Caitlin quilted in the ditch round each panel and also quilted a couple of stars with invisible thread.  She sewed on the binding, which is from the Very Hungry Caterpillar range by Makower, and I slip stitched it in place.  I found basting with 505 spray easy and it held the sandwich of quilt top, backing and 80/20 backing in place perfectly while she was machine quilting.

The borders are strips pieced in turn, and there is a kangaroo button from The Button Lady sewn onto the central square.

It can be difficult to fit the time and mental energy needed to focus on sewing inbetween the busy day to day life of an 8 year old and I was very proud of her hard work.  She created really all of this, designing and executing the whole thing with me acting as faciliator more than anything else, holding down the ruler for rotary cutting, paying for fabric, being an extra pair of hands and providing support if needed, moral and practical!  She won her class in the YQ competition for the Quilters' Guild AGM in Dundee and I freely admit to being a very proud mum!