Half Moon Modern Half Square Triangles!

 I finished my Half Moon Modern HST quilt!  This might be my favorite quilt of all the ones I've made so far.  I love the asymmetry, the negative space, and the prints on the fabrics.

I quilted lines on each side of each grey/print seam using my walking foot.  I thought about trying to do some sort of FMQ filler in the negative space, but I wasn't confident in my FMQ skills and I like that the simple quilting leaves the focus on the fabric and patchwork.

There are big polka dots on the back and the binding is the paisley print from the Half Moon Modern collection.  The quilt top was made from two charm packs of Half Moon Modern and grey yardage, and the batting is Warm and Natural.

The top was about 48 by 60".  I didn't bother to measure it after quilting/binding/washing/drying.  The quilt is coming to work to keep my warm in my over-air-conditioned office this summer.

CMS/Colloquium knitting

 This is how my sock looked at the end of CMS (the first of two seminars) on Thursday afternoon.

This second photo is what it looked like when I got home Thursday evening.  I spent the first ten minutes of colloquium ripping back to the foot, because I realized that the foot was way to long.  By an inch.  This is the first time I've used this particular heel pattern, so it's not that surprising that I had to figure out the hard way how much length the heel adds to the foot (if you're wondering, I now know it's 4.25").  What is surprising is how long I was in denial about the need to rip it back and re-do it.

I don't mind, because for me socks are about process - after all, in this hot humid hot humid climate I don't wear socks very often - so it just means I get to knit with this wonderfully soft beautiful yarn for longer.  And even if I were knitting for product, it's so much better to have a product that fits!

Serger Cover!

I decided to turn my paper-pieced blocks from Quiltcon into a cover for my serger. I measured the serge (which is a very strange shape) and drew some diagrams.

I sewed together a strip for the front, top, and back, and quilted that in the ditch to a piece of batting (no backing).  I quilted the green print in parallel straight lines and later cut it into pieces for the side panels.

 Here's the finished front...

. . . and back.

 A close-up of the hole for the handle. I made this the same way I would put an interior pocket in a purse.

 Here's the inside. I made the inside 3/4 inch longer than the outside and finished the edge by turning the inside raw edge up to meet the outer raw edge, then folding the inside piece up again to encase the raw edge.  Then I topstitched around.

CMS knitting

This photo shows my Swans Island sock after CMS last Thursday. Comparing it to the photo in the last post, I feel pretty good about how much progress I made in less than 90 minutes of knitting time! (I knitted on the bus to school and in the first of my usual two Thursday seminars; the second seminar was cancelled last week.)

Travel knitting #2

Last weekend I was at a really great math conference in College Park, Maryland and then I got to spend Sunday afternoon with a childhood friend who lives in DC and works in the White House!  It was a great weekend, and I got quite a bit of magazine reading done on the plane (I'm within a month of being caught up on my New Yorker subscription!) but not much knitting.  That little bump in the center of the photo is the beginning of the gusset, and it is the sum total of the knitting I did on my trip.

CMS knitting

This is last Thursday's CMS knitting.  The foot of the sock went a lot faster than I expected and I wasn't sure where to stop for the heel, so I put it aside for the second seminar.  It turns out I stopped at exactly the right place to start the gusset!

Travel knitting #1

Weekend before last I traveled for a conference, and I needed some knitting to take with me.  The next step in my Lofoten sweater is the colorwork band at the bottom of the body, which is decidedly not portable.  (It involves five colors of yarn!)  So I started a new pair of socks, using the Swans Island organic sock yarn I bought with my Christmas gift certificate.  This yarn is really gorgeous.  It's a semi-solid warm grey.  In natural light, it looks brown, but in fluorescent light it looks grey to me.  The color is called "truffle."  The yarn is soft and feels really nice.

I'm using Fleegle's toe-up sock formula, with ribbing and cabling inspired by these socks by Hunter Hammersen.

I think I spent two hours or so to get as far as this photo shows: one and a half short flights.

This brings me (hopefully very temporarily) up to SEVEN works-in-progress.  I need to finish some things ...

Lambie slippers for Easter

On Tuesday, I saw that the Yarn Harlot had made little lambie slippers for her niece and nephew for Easter.  My niece is Greek Orthodox, so she celebrates Easter today, and l decided that she needed adorable lambie slippers for Easter, too.  Never mind that the Yarn Harlot lives in Canada and here it is already eighty degrees and humid.   These were quick and fun to knit and l think they came out pretty cute.

Swift!

Last week l used my swift for the first time.

 It was a Christmas gift, but all of the knitting I've done so far this year has been yarn that came pre-wound. The swift is wonderful! It was quick and easy! There were no tangles, and no-one had tired arms from holding up the skein!

Free-Motion Quilting!

I'm working on a quilt-as-you-go machine quilting sampler. It's going to be a bed quilt, and it is definitely a long term project. Recently l quilted these top two squares using free-motion designs I learned at Quiltcon. l think they turned out really well! The flower one has two layers of batting, which was a little bit difficult to manage near the edges.  Now I have six (of thirty-six) squares done, and fabric washed for four more!