Friday Night with Friends Report for February

I have been working on the quilting on my cat quilt – some of it was done on Friday night but I try to do a bit every day.  Here is some of my progress.

Detail around the cats in the sun.

The title of the first panel.

And some straight line quilting border work on the cats in the window panel.

It seems that I didn’t plan enough time for finishing it though as I keep on being too busy and I am worried that I won’t get it done in time.  Oh well, all I can do is try and if it doesn’t get done for this visit it will be done for the next one!

I did manage to get a few other things finished this week.  On Wednesday I went to a Bernina class at my LQS.  Ruth holds these classes once a month (except in summer – noone would come then).  We make a little project and learn about how to use some particular foot or feet or settings on the machine.  I attended these classes when I first bought my machine and learned tons but I feel like I have lots more to learn.  This class we made a wall hanging.

I learned how to do machine sewn binding the right way – it turns out that the way I was doing it on the placemats I made at Christmas was my own invention, although it worked okay.  And I learned a different way to do a diagonal join on the binding.  Here is my leaf on my mini quilt hanger.

And I had a spare hour before the class started during which time I put the straps on this bag (that I made at quilt retreat last September!!) 

It is a very large bag and I quite like it, although I like the smaller version that I made even more. I made this one about a year ago but I don’t seem to have ever posted a photo.

And that’s all folks.    I have a busy week coming up.  I am attending a workshop on Monday and Tuesday, working on Wednesday and part of Thursday and attending five films at the Available Light Film Festival, one on Tuesday evening, one on Wednesday afternoon and three on Thursday.  And Thursday is my birthday – and it’s a big one – 65 – so I get to watch all the movies I want to.

Please check out Cheryl's blog to see what everyone else got up to for Friday Night with Friends.

Janet

Friday Night Sew In January 2018

Ah life is so busy when you are retired!!  I did manage some sewing for Friday Night Sew In which, as usual, was hosted by lovely Wendy who blogs at Sugarlane Designs.

At the end of February I am having some company come to visit.  First my cousin Dawn is coming from Edmonton for three days.  I am sure she will regret not making her trip longer, especially because my sister and brother-in-law arrive from Australia on the afternoon of the day she leaves at 6 a.m.  At the same time my niece Brianna will be visiting her family (mom and dad, brother, his wife and a niece and nephew) in Whitehorse. 

A long time ago – actually 2010 – I started this quilt.  I started this blog because of this quilt.  I also decided a long time ago that this quilt will be for my niece Brianna.  The flimsy has been made for years and I even started quilting it a few years ago.  Well it is time to get it done!  I have a month to finish it – even slowpoke me should be able to accomplish that. 

So over this weekend I did some quilting on the first of the three panels.  This panel is called “Cats in the Sun”  so I worked on the rays of sunshine. 

And then I put flowers in the garden.

The first panel is almost done and I had previously done the bulk of the quilting on the second panel, so I really am more than halfway done with the quilting.  YAY! 

What did you do for FNSI? 

Janet

Knitted rug instruction

A couple of people asked me how to make the rugs I showed in my last post.  I haven’t made much progress since this photo, only about fourteen more rows.

Firstly I have to give credit to Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.  I first saw these rugs on her blog post and was totally attracted to them.  My method of making them is only slightly different from hers.
She suggests using size 35 needles.  I had no idea what this size is, although I just looked it up on a conversion chart and see US size 35 converts to 19mm in metric which is what we use in Canada.  But at the time I just knew I needed big needles and I went with the biggest I could find, which are US size 15 or 10mm.  It is interesting for me to realize now that I am using such smaller needles than she has used.
Amanda Jean suggests fabric strips from 1/2 to 1 inch.  I have used scraps that I collect from our local quilt shop which often include lots of fabric strings.  For the first rug I used whatever size came along, but I found that some were very difficult to knit with because of the bulk.  For the second rug I have cut down any that seemed too bulky to 1 1/8 inch. Many of the strips are narrower than that, but I don’t usually go smaller than about 1/2 inch, unless they are batiks or other “colour both sides” fabrics.  Something that I do that she doesn’t mention is that any strips that are printed – ie the colour shows more on the “right” side of the fabric – I fold in half as I am knitting so the colour is showing on the outside.  With any that are the same both sides, such as batiks, I don’t bother with this.
The other thing that I do differently from her is that she ties her strips together.  She doesn’t say what kind of knot she uses.  I have been using a knot that I found somewhere on the web (that I cannot find again now – too bad, that woman had some beautiful rugs).  I thought it was called a “blood knot” but I have just looked that up and found that it is a completely different knot.  I found some instructions on the internet about how to make this knot, but they all suggest making up a “ball” of “yarn” to work with.  I add pieces as I go, sometimes adding on several pieces at a time, and sometimes only one, depending on the length of the strip.
Here is how you make this knot. 
Fold over the end of the strip that is coming from your knitting in progress.

Cut a slit in the fabric.  If you want your ends to be neater, cut this slit up to 1/4 inch away from the end of the fabric.  I like the knobby knots for their texture and look so I am not very careful about my cuts and they are often 1/2 to 1 inch from the end.

Do the same thing in one end of the strip that you want to join on.

Insert the end of the strip coming from your work in progress through the slit in the new fabric strip.  It is important to insert the strip from your work first, as otherwise you’ll have a problem.  Try it the other way and you’ll see…

Now insert the end of the new strip through the slit in the old strip.

Pull the two strips taut to make the knot.

As you can see, my knot is going to be lumpy and bumpy, just like I want it.  I am going to continue eroneously calling this a bloodknot because I think it fits.
For the rugs that I made and am making, I cast on 50 stitches.  That was all I could fit on the needles.  The rugs are knit in garter stitch, that is using a knit stitch on every row.  I used a simple cast off stitch and wove the long ends from the start and the finish through the knitted rows.   My rugs 23 inches wide by 29 inches long, just the right size for by a bed or in front of the kitchen sink.  They could easily be longer if one just kept knitting.  To be wider one would have to have longer needles, or perhaps a circular needle. 
There are various instructions on the internet for making rugs from fabric strips, old sheets, old tshirts etc.  This is the way I have done it.  I hope you will let me know if you try my method.    I have a friend who has old wool blankets from her family’s farm who has asked if I could make a rug for her using them.  I am excited to try another medium.  And one day I will try using tshirts.  I think they would be softer to knit with.
Janet

Friday Night With Friends January 2018

I’m back!  It has been a while since I last posted.  I retired mid November and life has been a whirlwind since then.  A visit from DD#2 who lives in Newfoundland the last two weeks of November, renovations to my bedroom and another bedroom ongoing since early November, my brother and his wife visiting from Seattle over Christmas and sixteen people here for Christmas dinner.  This along with all the other miscellaneous things that have needed to be done for years that I am finally getting to. 

We have had lots of snow, then a big thaw and lots of ice but we are finally back to lots of snow after a big blizzard a few days ago.  Skiing and yoga and sewing take up a lot of my time.  Yes, I said sewing!  I did a lot of sewing for Christmas – six placemats, two bottle bags and seven hotmats.  I have photos of the placemats…. missed out on the other items.

These two were for my daughter and s-i-l in Newfoundland, a salmon, which he loves to fish for, and a whale that she sees often when she is out walking on the coastal trail.

The other four were for my other two daughters and their partners.  Another salmon, a halibut, a dolphin and a flying fish.

I also made a knitted rug before Christmas.  A second one is in the works and was my Friday Night with Friends project. It is about half finished.

Here is the completed one, which resides in a bedroom by the bed.  This rug, which is made from scrap strips of fabric, is lovely to walk on with the different textures of the fabrics and the knots.

Check out what everyone else did for FNWF here on Cheryl’s blog.  Thanks for stopping by.

Janet