Thanks to everyone who came to the Moms and Makers Market yesterday and to Knitty City for organizing it!
There will be a huge shop update tomorrow, May 14, featuring hedgehog bags and other new and favorite patterns.
Tag: finished!
Back to Quilting
It’s been a little while since I’ve quilted — I’ve been under the weather for about a year now (long story, but I’m on the mend) and I’ve been focused on bags, because small projects were all I’ve had the attention span for.
But this past week, the quilting bug bit me again, and I decided to rearrange my sewing space, and try a baby quilt.
Pardon the untidiness: this photo was taken mid-batch of bags for the Moms and Makers Market (see previous post or my Instagram!)
I grabbed a pack of charm squares, a tutorial from Elizabeth Hartmann, and off I went!
I used an old thrifted sheet for the backing and cut a queen batting in quarters, so I suppose there are three more baby quilts in my future!
The quilting was all done by eye with a walking foot — I just let myself stitch where it looked appropriate, and see what happened! I’m quite pleased.
The backing isn’t quite as pretty — there are a couple of places where the top thread (white) pops through because my tension wasn’t quite right — but overall, I’m delighted with it.
Now to find it a new home! I’m thinking about putting it up on Etsy to help me fundraise for the Hispanic Federation, because god knows Puerto Rico still needs help!
KnitSpinQuilt & Indie Untangled
KnitSpinQuilt is now an Indie Untangled vendor — you can find a link to my shop on the Indie Untangled website, and I was featured in the newsletter last week.
This pussyhat bag was featured in the newsletter and is now only available for pre-order — I sold out of all the fabric I had in stock! This is fabulous news, because it means I can donate more to the Hispanic Federation this quarter — 30% of shop purchase prices will go to the Hispanic Federation’s Puerto Rico disaster relief efforts in 2018.
Commission Quilting
A few months ago I agreed to barter for quilting services: I would quilt an acquaintance’s quilt top, and she would pay me in yarn and fabric. Life intervened, and she was very patient as I proceeded to have zero free time around the holidays.
But now it’s done! Here’s the front, post-washing:
I stitched in the ditch to emphasize the swirly quilting:
The back (pre-washing, and quite wrinkly) shows the outline of some of the curves slightly better:
If you look carefully on the right-hand side you can see a sleeve for a dowel, so the quilt can be hung from a wall. I’d ordinarily do corners, but this was so wide that I was afraid it would sag in the middle.
I’m delighted to have this done and in the mail back to its owner – and can’t wait to get a box of yarn and fabric in exchange. Now if only the postman would show up to pick it up the way the USPS says they already have!
Selfish Knitting
Last year I knit 11 pairs of socks – and gave them ALL away. This year, I’ve knit 3 pairs of socks for myself so far.
Sewing for Flint
I’ve been doing a lot of sewing recently, mostly project bags. Most are Spoonflower fabric, and all are repeatable.
I’ve also made some new stitch markers. The oak leaves are one-offs, but the little green balls glow in the dark, and I have other colors of those that I’ll be making up soon.
All are available (or custom-orderable) at KnitSpinQuilt on Etsy where all money raised through sales in February and March of 2016 are being directed to the Flint Child Health & Development Fund.
Since I last posted about this we’ve raised $317.50!
But – and here’s where I ask your indulgence – sending monetary aid isn’t enough.
Please, if the issue of lead levels as high as 4,000 parts per billion (it’s an emergency at 15 ppb!) scares you, if the idea of an un-elected “emergency manager” poisoning the water supply of an entire town who had no recourse, no way to vote him out of office makes you mad, write your elected officials! If enough of us make enough noise, we can get Michigan’s government to move faster on this horrifying issue. If you don’t live in MI, you may not be able to write to those senators, but you can write your own and let them know you care and want them to care, too.
I’ve done so. It’s a small thing, but it’s how our democracy is supposed to work.
In the mean time, however, I’m going to keep making things, donating my time and my stash to something that I truly believe is a national disaster and crisis. With your help, if you like the things I make and buy them, we can do something small – and possibly something really meaningful – for the people of Flint, MI, who are really hurting. And you get a nifty handmade gift out of it, too!
Finished Penny Patch Quilt!
I FINALLY finished my Penny Patch quilt. Rachel at Stitched in Color started a quilt-along about a year ago and I cut fabric and stitched a quilt top and even machine quilted the whole thing and then… well, then I got hung up on binding it.
But I finished it last Sunday, and I love it. Here it is on my kitchen table:
I grid-quilted it, free-handing it with a walking foot on my Brother P1500Q straight-stitch machine:
And I used a blue and orange backing, stretching the blue gingham I had by adding a center orange panel:
I’ve also been cleaning out my closets, and discovered that I have a lot of quilts that I’ve finished that I just have no use for — they don’t match my personal aesthetic, I made them just to make them, or they’re for babies, and I don’t have a baby. So I’ve put them on Etsy.
Longtime blog readers will recognize two quilts I made in 2012. If you like one of these, and use the code KNITSPINQUILTREADER, you’ll get 10% off.
As before, all income in September and October of 2015 go directly to a donation to the JHU CTY Scholars program!
Edited to add: linking up to TGIFF!
Two-Finish Friday
These are both gift quilts: one for a friend and her husband and one for a new baby. Here they are all folded up, about to be packed and mailed:
The first quilt I finished was made up of hourglass blocks. I pieced them all over the summer on my Singer 66, and then they sat, and sat, and sat over the fall, because I didn’t have time to finish it until the semester was over. But now it’s done!
The backing is a boat print, because the mother and the grandparents all sail. You can see in this picture that I quilted a simple diagonal grid 1/4″ on each side of the hourglass blocks.
I used a black pezzy print for the binding because I didn’t want to emphasize any particular color from the front. I think it works! I wish I had more of this fabric in stash to do the same in the future — I’ll just have to keep an eye out for similarly useful prints. I attached the binding by stitching it down twice. On the back you see two lines of stitching:
On the front, you only see one, because the other is hidden at the intersection of the binding and the quilt:
The other quilt is for friends of mine, because they live in northern England and it gets coooooold! For this one I used a pattern by Elizabeth Hartmann: her New Wave Quilt.
I cut my fat quarters very, very carefully, and had enough extra pieces to showcase the wave pattern on the back of the quilt as well:
This one I quilted by stitching in the ditch along the edges of the white sashing. I stitched smaller diamonds within the “waves” as well. Then I did some free-motion quilting in the sashing, which I’m really quite proud of.
I did the same kind of binding on this quilt, and also bound it in a pezzy print, though this one was navy, to complement the blues of the quilt.
Not bad for a break that only started on December 23rd!
Knit-Spin-Quilt 