Birthday quilting!

Tuesday was my birthday, and I took some time for quilting.  I had wanted to quilt my jelly roll race quilt, but first I wanted to try out the quilting design, so I made the first block for my machine quilting sampler.  It's not perfect - it looks better in the photos than in person, but I think it's good enough (especially if you don't look too closely). 

I'm so excited to have started this quilt!  And I'm so looking forward to quilting a whole quilt, which now seems achievable!

CMS/Colloquium knitting

I knitted away during CMS and colloquium on Thursday, and this piece of the blanket is now 12.25" long!  It's pretty satisfying to see it grow so fast.  Also, the baby who is going to receive this blanket was born yesterday morning!  Knowing that she is now here makes me want to work faster on the blanket so she can get it soon.

This coming week is spring break, so there's no CMS or colloquium, but I would like to get one of my quilt tops quilted and a bunch of schoolwork done this week!

An Orenburg shawl

 This shawl was a gift from my mother.  She bought it at the Orenburg lace knitting class she went to last year - it is an authentic Orenburg shawl.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  It is a "wedding ring shawl," meaning that it is fine enough that one could pull it through a wedding ring.  I had a hard time getting a good photograph, but here it is spread out on our double bed - it's quite large!

Here is a close-up of the center motif:

 and one of the edging:

My mom has a Russian shawl in a similar style, and I can remember her getting it out to wear it on special occasions throughout my childhood.  I can see myself doing the same thing with this shawl in the years to come.  Thanks, Mom!

CMS & Colloquium knitting

This is actually two weeks worth of knitting (one CMS two weeks ago and one colloquium last week), but somehow I didn't manage to take a picture in between. 

This is coming along!

Jelly roll race!

This post is horribly belated.  I finished my jelly roll race quilt top almost a month ago (I think?  I can't quite remember).  This is the first of the quilts my mom and I bought fabric for at the quilt festival in November and plan to make "together."  She finished her top back in December, but I didn't manage to finish mine until after the holiday rush. 

I love it!  It's pretty loud.  It's a small lap quilt size, but I think it will be big enough to cuddle with on the couch.  I decided not to put any borders on it.  Once I quilt it, I'm going to bind it in a coordinating solid.

I'm excited to machine quilt this.  I think what I'm going to do is one big spiral starting somewhere in the middle and going all the way out to the edges.  I'm just not quite sure how to do it.  Do I start with a free-motion foot in the middle and then switch to a walking foot, or do I do the whole thing with the walking foot?  I think I need to do some internet tutorial research on this question.

CMS knitting

There was no colloquium on Thursday, so all I've got to show is this little start on the new baby blanket.  Actually, this is the second start - I knitted for about half an hour before it was long enough to check the width, and then I had to rip it out and start again with smaller needles. 

This is interesting yarn.  The gender of this baby will be unknown until he or she is born, and my mom was a bit concerned that the yarn my cousin picked out was a bit "girly."  But it absolutely is not!  I think it's interesting to see how the colors mix when it is wound and knitted up.  I wouldn't want a pair of socks from this yarn (it is sock yarn), but I so far I love the colorful tweedy look for a baby of either gender!