A productive "happy housewife" day!

Three weeks ago (I think?), after the craziness of finals and the end of the semester, and before the craziness of teaching a three-week class started, I took a whole Saturday and played happy housewife.  First, I finished up a cover for the electric pancake griddle that Robert and I got as a wedding gift (Thanks, Julie!) I used the 12" Swoon block that I made several months ago, and a month or two ago I machine quilted it to a piece of scrap batting I had lying around.  I lined it with some plain light grey fabric I had leftover from the background of the arrow quilt I made for my grandcousin last fall - but I didn't have quite enough.  So I pieced in the last of the green fabric from the outside and a scrap of purple from Elise's quilt.

I'm very happy with it!  I got to practice machine quilting, and I made a cute cover to protect the griddle from dust while we're not using it - we don't have enough cabinet space, so we store pots and pans and things on an open bookshelf just outside the kitchen. 

The next thing I did that Saturday was quilt my jelly roll race quilt.  I decided to do one huge spiral, and at the beginning it was pretty tough to turn the quilt through the tiny throat space on my machine.  You can see in the photo above how tight the space was.  I could barely fit my hand in to guide the quilt!

I didn't mark the quilt top at all.  I used the quilting guide bar that fits into my walking foot, and checked that the distance was about two inches after every few spirals.  It turned out really well!

Here's a close-up of the back.  It's not perfect, but it's pretty good.  This is one of the worst "wobbles:"

Now I just need to make the binding, and the quilt will be finished!  It's definitely going to have to wait until I'm done teaching this class, though...

Crochet edged receiving blankets

 One of the post-docs in my department is due to have a baby boy next week, and last week we had a little baby shower for her.  I made two crochet-edged baby blankets.  I had such a great time choosing the fabrics to make these!  I based them on the tutorial from Sew Chic, but I wanted to make them double-sided, so I used one yard each of flannel and quilting cotton, and serged the edges with right sides together.  Then I turned them right side out and pressed the edges, and then crocheted the edging.  Unfortunately I didn't start them until the night before the shower, and so I didn't finish them in time!  I wrapped them up anyway, and told her that she had to give them back after opening them so I could finish.  I finished them last weekend and gave them to her last Monday.  Here's a picture of the finished product:

The blankets finished at just under 34" square, and they are machine wash- and dry-able. 

Last CMS/Colloquium of the semester!

This picture is two weeks old now - it's from the last CMS and colloquium of our semester.  This piece is now about 16" long.  The week before this picture was taken, I thought about starting this strip over, but as you can see, I decided not to.  Instead I just switched back to the larger needles and hope that the crooked edge will straighten out in the sewing/washing process.

Last week's CMS/Colloquium knitting

Two weeks ago, when my mom was visiting for my wedding, I finished the first 30" strip of Baby Rai's blanket and cast on for the second one.  I decided to use size 3 needles (which is what is called for in the pattern) and only 39 stitches rather than size 1 needles, which was what I had been using to get the strip to be 6" wide using the 42 stitches called for in the pattern. 

I started knitting in earnest in CMS last week, and it was too wide.  So in Colloquium, I switched to smaller needles.  You can see this in the photo (which by the way, was taken after dark inside my apartment with no flash using my fancy new camera!)  But the top part, after I switched needles, is now about a quarter inch too narrow, not to mention that the edges are not anywhere near straight.  It is already 8" long, so I'm loath to rip it out and start over, but I kind of think I should.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I need to decide before tomorrow afternoon, which is the last Thursday of our regular semester!

CMS/Colloquium knitting

So there was no sewing on Friday night.  I did not manage to make Friday Night Sew-In happen.  I just wanted to get a photobook with lots of white space ordered before I got my sewing machine out.  The photobook is going to be the guest book at our wedding, and I needed to get it ordered because we need it in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!! 

All of the photos in the guest book are from our engagement photo shoot, and it took way longer than I expected to get them all loaded to the photo-ordering website and then to choose the order and layout of all of the photos in the book.  The electric griddle cover I was going to finish on Friday is still at the top of the list of projects I want to work on .. below all of the wedding stuff, of course!

The photo above is of the first piece of Baby Rai's blanket.  It's really almost done, but before I can knit the last half inch and cast off, I need to fix the mistake I made.  I looked down during CMS last Thursday and noticed a dropped stitch about two inches back!  I didn't have a crochet hook with me, so I just knitted it up with the end of one of my dpns, but it was too hard to manage the garter stitch.  I just let it be a stockinette column, and I need to drop that stitch back down to that place and fix it with a little crochet hook.  Hopefully now that it's been sitting for a few days the tension will have evened out to make it easier than it was on Thursday!

Friday Night Sew-In

Tomorrow night is Friday Night Sew-In at Handmade by Heidi.  I've missed the last few, but I'm looking forward to finishing up a quilting project I started last week (or the week before?  I can't remember).  It's a cover for the electric pancake griddle we got as a wedding gift.  It's a super awesome gadget, and so far we've been using it about once a week, but due to the lack of space in our kitchen, it's being stored on the open cookbook bookshelf just outside our kitchen, so it needs a cover.

CMS/Colloquium knitting

I knitted away in CMS and colloquium on Thursday, and the first chunk of baby Rai's blanket is now 23 inches long!  If I knit quickly next week, I might be able to finish this piece and cast on for the next one.