Christmas Socks

My Father-in-Law had a Christmas tradition where on Christmas Eve he wore green socks and on Christmas Day he wore red socks. When he died DH inherited the socks and the tradition.

I gave the socks shown at the end of this post to DH. as I had made them too long for my feet. He said they would be his Christmas Eve socks. Periodically I ask him if I can knit him socks and he always says no until he finally broke down and said I could knit him Christmas Day socks. When I went to Fiber Space earlier this year, I found the perfect red in a new-to-me sock yarn - Entice by Hazel Knits. Next to choose a pattern. I didn't want to knit a plain (vanilla) sock, so I looked at simple knit/purl patterns; there really is too much choice. I finally decided on this pattern. Enough going on to keep the knitting interesting but simple enough for a male to like. The pattern is by Meaghan who used to be in my knitting group but then she moved to Oregon this year. I have knit two of her other patterns - the hat shown at the end of this post and the shawl I made a few months ago.

The only change I made to the pattern was the type of heel. The pattern has a wrap and turn short row heel; I worked a short row heel with gusset; using reinforced German short row double stitches.

The pattern is toe-up and I worked three full pattern repeats on the leg before the end rows and rib. Before cutting the yarn after working the final bind off stitch I checked that I had enough yarn for the second sock; one of the advantages of owning a balance scale. I had not used half the yarn, which was a relief, but I did use more than 100 grams in total. Something to be aware of if I ever knit more socks for DH. Birthday, Thanksgiving, New Year, Super Bowl. There are plenty of possibilities for special socks.

I finished the socks on Christmas Eve and I gave them to him on Christmas Day but he still hasn't worn them! They should fit as I got him to try the first one on when I was working on the foot. This means I don't have any good photos. These are the ones on my sock blockers which are too small but it gives you some idea.

Knitting With Some Bad Photos

So after the last post, I need to show some knitting.

These were gifts that have now been mailed across the pond so it is unlikely that I will get better photos.

I have noticed that although I am not a repeat knitter, I certainly am when it comes to hats. Having made these patterns in the past for my granddaughter I decided they were worth making again for my great nieces I even used the same yarn as I had plenty left over.




And I nearly forgot this one; a Christmas present for my niece. The yarn is from Candy Skein, the worsted weight I bought at the Vista Fiber Fiesta. The pattern is my own design after searching pattern books for something that I thought would work with variegated yarn.

Sewing With Some Bad Photos

I know myself and blogging. If I've got a photo I should just write and post as the likelihood of getting a better photo in a short time frame is slim. So here we are, a couple of sewn items and photos of when they were tried on.

Quite a while ago, in Jo-Ann, I picked up the pattern sheet for this rain jacket. It was in my head to make at some point but I never bought the fabric required. Fast forward to last month and the grandkids' mother gave me all her sewing stuff and sewing machine. There was a lot of Babyville PUL so now I had (mostly) what I needed to make a rain jacket for each of the grandchildren, plus although I wasn't using the PUL as originally intended it was being made into something for the original intended recipients. I just had to buy wicking fabric and I made sure I had a good coupon.

This is an easy pattern and the crafting time stated is pretty accurate. The pattern does not add anything for seam allowances, so the jacket will be shorter than knee length and won't go down to the wrists if you do not add an extra inch to width and length measurements. I also thought top stitching one-inch from the edge was too wide so I stitched about 1/2-inch. The wicking fabric was a pain to deal with as it stretches. If I use it again, I will stabilize it first.

But the important thing is that my granddaughter loves hers, grandson couldn't care less which is why it was hard to take a photo and their dad thinks they are wonderful too.

Boy Quilt

I have finished another quilt. I have said that I don’t keep a record of when I start quilts. As I have that option for yarn projects on Ravelry I need to find a way to remember to record start dates of quilts. Although maybe it would be better to record the dates of various stages of a quilt. For example, yesterday I looked at the fabric for my next quilt and decided which colours to go next to each other. Is that the start date? I had a charm pack of 5-inch squares although they weren’t square so yesterday and today I squared them up – is that the start date?

Regardless of the actual start date, I do know that with this quilt I changed my mind on the final design between purchasing the fabric and finishing the quilt. The central design didn’t change but the borders did.

This is the pattern with a jelly roll that I purchased earlier this year from Jo-Anns – I know I said I wouldn’t buy anymore from there – don’t worry I only bought two! This one was cut straight.

My original plan was to finish the quilt using the self-binding baby quilt. Of course I changed my mind after buying fabric! I still used what I had purchased for the backing but purchased a different fabric for the borders. Which left the corner squares; as I really like to have those in a different fabric from the borders I used squares left over from this quilt.

It is a brightly coloured quilt; ideal for a little boy.

First photo attempt - somebody wanted in on the action.

A Birthday Quilt

Looking through my posts I realised I had not posted pictures of a quilt I finished earlier this year. Surprising, considering I think this is my favourite quilt. But I finished it in April and it was a gift for a birthday in July. I didn't notice until I saw this post and wondered where was the post showing the finished quilt. Well here it is.



The quilt was a gift for my son and I spent a while trying to decide on suitable fabric design and colours. I finally hit on the idea of bandanas as he had liked them when he was younger. I gradually purchased them with Jo-Ann's coupons. And once I had enough I changed my mind on the design so had to buy more! I chose You've Got Mail from Missouri Star Quilt Company.

I thought using bandanas would save having to cut fabric, but the bandanas were by no means square.

Having completed the top, I had to decide on fabric for the backing. Why not more bandanas?



The binding is a small black and white print. I thought quilting might be a problem, so I tied quilted it at each "point" with embroidery floss, alternating green and red.

This favourite will soon be superseded by the current quilt that is at binding stage.

When KALs Stymie Inspiration

This might seem a strange title considering I have participated in many knit alongs. But recently trying to work out what to knit in an informal knit along has put me into a flurry of matching yarn and patterns without actually starting anything.

I got into this mess after posting in the Yarniacs group on Ravelry a photo of the yarn I recently purchased. I listen to the Yarniacs podcast. One of the podcasters suggested we have a fun knit along with a skein of Candy Skein. Now did I think, I'll use that skein I just purchased; or did I think I can use one of my other Candy Skeins? No! I purchased another skein to match Gayle's.



And it was downhill from there. When I wound the new skein I decided it really needed to be socks. So what's the theme in Sock Knitters Anonymous? Lace. There's a pattern that I want to knit that will look lovely in this yarn. But wait says the voice in my head. Aren't you supposed to be knitting socks for hubby, for Christmas, with yarn you bought in Virginia? But I haven't started socks for him because since September I have been trying to find a pattern that fits the KAL theme .

And I haven't cast on with any of my Candy Skeins because I can't make a decision on any of those either.

Last Charity Knit For a While

When I lived in Calgary I knitted sections of blankets that were delivered to the NICU at one of the local hospitals. Posts showing the blankets are here, here and here. I enjoyed working on these blankets as there was a comradery within the group.

When I moved I wanted to get involved in something similar and a search on Ravelry produced a group which did the same thing. I joined and worked on four blankets in 2013 and 2014. This group was rather more officious, I think because members were spread out more and didn't know each other in person, so I didn't continue although I still like the idea of working on a section of blanket.

After that I found a group on Ravelry that knitted hats for Operation Gratitude which provides care packages to active and retired military. I have made 22 hats and 3 scarves. I have tried to make one item a month. This is my own target but lately I have found the knitting to be an obligation and not an enjoyment. Therefore, I decided it would be a good idea to take a break. I will knit items for charity again when it is something I want to do and not when I feel I have to do it.

This is the hat I started in August. It was suggested in the group and as I have always loved the pattern (I used it in one of the charity blankets) I knew I had to cast on. The pattern is by CorinnesKnits and is available on Ravelry.

Stash Enhancement

In my last post I mentioned the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta. Hubby came with me so that we could go out to lunch afterwards. He wondered around the gem show while I looked at yarn.

I knew I wanted to get the colour of the month from Candy Skein, otherwise I had no particular plan. My first visit was to the Yarnover Truck. I always try to support them although their yarns are on the more expensive end. For October their featured dyer is Apple Tree Knits and they had a selection of their gradient yarns. I have wanted to knit another shawl with gradient yarn after finishing this beauty. The truck had a number of different colours in different bases but I wanted enough for a shawl so I chose the SilkLin Light Fingering which is 756 yards of 65% silk/35% linen. On this base the colours are muted and I chose the chocolate topaz colourway.

I headed off to Candy Skein's booth; looking at other vendors on the way. The booth was quiet so I was able to have a fan girl moment and introduce myself to Tami as I follow her on Instagram. I bought Poison Apple in both the Yummy Fingering and Juicy Worsted; the plan being to make a hat for Christmas. With the worsted I chose a skein with not much white; the fingering has more white. (I have already started the hat and it is looking really nice knitted up. No good photos yet.)

And that was it for purchases. I did look at other booths especially new dyers but I just wasn't in the mood to buy (any more) yarn just for the sake of it.

A Series of Photos Culminating in a Shawl

I could say I had no plans to make this pattern but that would be stupid because it was only released at the very end of July this year. Really what happened is that it was discussed at knitting group as it is a design by a friend - who has now moved. And as I had an upcoming vacation and I hadn't planned my knitting this seemed perfect plus I knew which two yarns in my stash I would use.

Looking at my blog posts from last year, I have not mentioned these yarns - how remiss - they were purchased at the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta. (As of the time of writing I hope to be able to attend this year's Fiesta.)

Anyway, these are the two yarns I chose.



The dyer is Squirrel Stash, who, sadly, is no longer dying. I bought four skeins of yarn (and a stitch marker) at the Fiesta and this was the only booth where I bought two skeins. Unfortunately it meant another vendor missed out as I was limiting myself to four skeins.



When I chose these skeins I chose them individually, in fact I had a hard time just choosing two, but as I was paying for them someone mentioned how well they went together. This must have stuck in the back of my mind as at no time since purchase have I considered them for socks.

I think you will agree they work well together in this pattern. Unfortunately, for my "out" numbers I cannot record balls out as the pattern does not use full skeins of yarn. I used 85 grams of the blue and 65 grams of the cream. I contemplated making the last section longer to use more of the blue and maybe if I had been at home I would have done. This was a perfect vacation knit as I started and finished it while I was away and just had to block it when I got home. As you will see from the photos that was not so easy.

Time For An Update

After the last post with three different completed projects it's time to assess where I am with all my WIPs. Back in May I had ten projects in progress. I am going to amend that number to nine as one of those projects was a charity project which when finished was replaced with another project for charity.

I had two shawls, two socks, two cardigans, one toy and two long term projects on the go and I am pleased to report that of those projects I have one cardigan and the two long term projects still in progress. (I was going to write not finished but that sounded negative.) My original plan was to concentrate on two of these WIPs at a time but as none of them come under the easy category, I will work on just one. Also one of the long term projects will be worked on at next year's summer concerts.

I was really pleased to have only three projects left but then my dear husband asked how many other projects I had started. That number is really good too. Since my post in May I have started two new projects. One of those was a pair of socks that is now finished and the other is the Pi shawl I started on 22 July and is a deliberate long term project. (I'm excluding hats for charity.)

After I finished the second pair of socks I picked up the remaining cardigan to work on and I was actually excited to be knitting on it again. This was a project I started in April 2015 and completely undid and restarted in April 2016. I am hoping the excitement will continue and I will actually finish this.

Four Socks and a Hat

Yes that is the completed number of finished objects in August. Although that's not really true as two of the socks were finished in prior months. But I can show off two pairs of socks and a hat knitted for charity.

As I am (trying to) knitting a hat every month for charity I have joined another group on Ravelry - Hat of the Month - for ideas. This was the hat for July. A little lonely cable by Joji Locatelli; a free pattern on Ravelry. Yarn is Red Heart Soft. I wasn't sure if I'd have enough of the black for an entire hat so originally planned to add blue somewhere. After adding the first stripe and I decided to make this a striped hat. Of course, now I have small amounts of both colours left.



These were the second socks started but the first finished. Originally cast on for the June challenge where we could make a previously knit pattern. I was upset that the Pomatomus socks I knitted in 2006 quickly developed a hole in the heel. (After a couple of wearings.) So that was the pattern I knit; I didn't quite finish both socks by the end of July so carried on with them in August. The yarn is ModeSock from ModeKnit and with the bamboo and nylon content I am hoping they will last longer than my original pair.




The other pair of socks I started in March. The challenge for that month was cables and these socks do have a cable pattern between the pattern repeats. I did not enjoy knitting these: they were fiddly to knit and the pattern was not very well written. The August challenge was really the impetus for finishing these. The pattern is Downton Farewell and the yarn is Birch Medium Twist Fingering by Mosaic Moon. It is a rich tonal brown, which I am not sure shows up too well in photos.

What's the WIP Status?

In May I had seven projects on the go. I have just blocked the second shawl which means I have now completed five of the seven WIPS mentioned in my 16 May post. How nice it would be if I just had a pair of socks and a cardigan left to knit. OK, plus the three v. slow projects. But I cast on a pair of socks for the June challenge and I started a new shawl on 22 July - 22/7 - pi day. So now my projects are back up to seven. Sock Knitters Anonymous August challenge is to finish pairs of socks that were started before 1 July and my plan is to finish both pairs of socks before the end of August. The shawl is a long-term project to be finished on March 14 2017. I hope that means I can work on the cardigan WIP in September.

Here is the finished shawl.



This is the shawl that I had to redo the border when I had nearly finished it as I had worked it on the wrong side because I had added an odd number of rows. The yarn is MerGoat Lace by Indigodragonfly; yarn that I had originally bought to knit a hat until I came to my senses that I didn't want to knit an adult man's hat in fingering weight yarn and doubling it would have likely muddied the colours. The pattern is Duchess of Devonshire. I added a few extra rows as I wanted to use all my yarn. The yarn used in the original design is heavier than the yarn I used so my shawl is not very deep but is plenty wide enough. My son's GF styled it before taking photos.

Two Hats

As I have said many times, I like to have a project for charity on the go at all times and usually it is my handbag project and usually it is a hat. I have been making hats (and some scarves) for Operation Gratitude since January 2014 and I try to make one item a month. This year some projects have taken time to complete - the down side of having projects earmarked as handbag projects - and to date I have completed 6 projects. These are the latest two to be completed.

The group on Ravelry set up for people knitting for Operation Gratitude suggests a crochet and a knit hat pattern each month and I have joined a group called "Hat of the Month" as they have a crochet and knit hat pattern each month so this gives me more ideas.

The first hat came from the choice of this group in April. The pattern is Cool Logic. An interesting pattern as it is worked form the top down. I worked the edging is shorter than the written pattern as I worked until I ran out of yarn. The hat is plenty big enough anyway. I used Vanna's Choice in Colonial Blue.



This hat is from a pattern on Ravelry called Scarlet. It is designed for bulky yarn and I had some Loops & Threads Charisma in Black in my stash. This was a very easy pattern.

I'm Wearing a Thing or Two

It is hard to get photos of me wearing something I have made because I have to rely on someone else (usually DH) to take a photo.

This is a shawl I finished in July last year and I didn't have any nice photos of it. We went to a party the other weekend and I chose it to go with my dress and remembered to ask for photos before we went.



The party was inland so this was the only time that evening that I wore the shawl.

At the end of June I showed a poor photo of a cardigan I had recently finished. Last night I realised I was wearing suitable clothing in which to be photographed.



I am looking forward to wearing it in the winter.

Knitting in the Park

I am sure I have talked about this but I cannot easily find reference in previous blog posts.

Every summer our city has a series of concerts staged at various outdoor parks. I take knitting with me and one old project has become my go to for these events. Actually the outdoor concerts are now the only time I knit on it. I was hoping this would be the year for finishing it but counting how many more rows to completion and my rate of knitting, even if we went to every concert it wouldn't be finished. But it will still come with me on summer Friday evenings.

I decided it needed to be shown off so here is a photo I took last night.

Some Photos

Not very good ones but photos are better than words. These are photos of the three finished items I mentioned in my last post.



I need to get a better photo of me wearing it. The yarn is Findley by Juniper Moon Farm. I only used 1 1/2 skeins, at some point I will pair the remaining half skein with the skein I was given.



I made these socks for the April challenge which was unusual construction. The pattern is The Troll's Cauldron; a free pattern which is amazing considering the amount of work involved. What I like about this pattern is that it looks complicated but it was an easy knit. The yarn is Super Sock from Rain City Knits.

And finally the finished toy.



The yarn is Bernat Baby Boucle which has been in my stash a long time, nearly a complete ball left over from a baby blanket. When I was sorting out my stash at the end of the year I decided to keep it as I thought I would make a hat but as you can see it ended up as a pig. The other yarns used were in my stash also.

WIPS Are Down

If I count all my WIPs there are still too many because I have three projects that are in semi-hibernation. But I am pleased to say that I have finished four of the projects mentioned in my post from the middle of May.

I wrote and showed photos of one of them but since then I have finished a cardigan, a pair of socks and the toy. No photos yet. This brings my active projects to three. Three! A much better number. One shawl, one cardigan and one pair of socks. Although I am going to wait until August to knit the other sock as SKA has a challenge in August of finishing old projects. But I will be casting on a project for June's challenge. The project on which I will concentrate is the shawl as this just needs the sideways edging.

I am not going to set a deadline (end of the month would be nice) as we have visitors and not much knitting has been going on.

So just a little update of my projects and all that is needed are photos.

One Down

After my assessment of WIPs and my plan to finish them, I am happy to show a finished project. I hope there will be more by tomorrow but just in case I am posting about the one item now because I have a photo.

But a quick update on the status of the other items. The seaming of the cardigan is finished and just needs the buttons sewn on - which I did purchase this week. The socks are nearly finished; I am working on the cuff which is worked sideways and, unlike the shawl, I can see the stitches disappearing.

The shawl is my finished item so the next project I picked up was the toy which I really should have finished last night apart from the embroidery. Except I made a mistake which was hard to undo. Last night I wanted to sew the front feet on the animal. I'd had trouble working out where they went, worked it out, sewed one on and immediately could see it was wrong. Problem was I couldn't see the stitches to pull it out. That's good for a finished object but not so good for correcting a mistake. I might have been able to fix it in daylight but instead of waiting I cut the knitted part. The foot was knitted in different yarn from the body of the toy so I knew I wouldn't be cutting that. Basically I cut the middle out close to the edge stitches and then worked all the extra yarn out. Once I had done this I had another good look at the body and worked out where the leg was and thus the foot. What I had been doing before was making the foot fit and as it turned out to be bigger than needed I had been fitting it into the wrong place. I will say in my defense that it is not obvious from the shape of the knitting how the front legs were formed.

I finished one of the shawls. I finished the sideways knitted border, soaked and blocked the shawl. I lay the main part flat, pinning the top edge and then stretched the border to show off the design. I am really happy with it, although it is DK weight 80% merino so I do not think I will be wearing it much until the winter months.

The yarn is Black Cat DK by Dye Cauldron, a Canadian dyer who does not seem to be dying anymore. This is the same dyer as the yarn used in this project. I had bought some of the yarn and some was a gift. Once I moved, I had no idea what I was going to make with the yarn. Then I saw a mystery Knit Along starting in March for a shawl using DK weight yarn. I looked at the projects after the fist clue, liked what I saw and decided that it would be an ideal project to take away with me. I wanted to use up all the yarn, I had two skeins in orange and one in brown, and ended up knitting the border 2 1/2 times.

I am really happy with how it came out.

Too Many WIPs

Back in 2013 I explained my ideal number of projects on the go at any one time and how this number can gradually creep up. Also earlier this year I was lamenting that although I was knitting away I was not finishing anything. (This has not been helped by my ripping out the edging on two shawls and completely restarting a cardigan.)

Before vacation I decided to take stock and come up with a better plan to finish things. This was prompted by having two different socks on the go and knowing that I would want to cast on more for future challenges.

So what's the number? Ten - I have 10 unfinished projects. That's it I have admitted my problem and this doesn't include the sewing projects. Although I am pleased to say that they are currently at one cross stitch project and one sewing project, as I don't work on them often I don't let them get out of hand.

Let's look at these ten and see if that is a true number of projects actually being worked on. One of them is the project that has become what I work on at the outdoor concerts, another is a project that requires attention and time spent on it. The longer I leave between working on it the harder it is to get started again and another is the charity project that stays in my handbag. This brings the number down to seven, not so bad but still too many.

I have two shawls, two socks, two cardigans and one toy on the go. Both the shawls need sideways knitted edgings, one cardigan is at the seaming stage and the toy is at the fiddly putting together stage. I had already decided to finish one shawl before starting the other so I applied this to my plan. Choose two projects to work on - one easy, one complicated. When a project is finished, pick up another WIP. Don't start socks for the May challenge; the category is lace which will be repeated every year and I want to knit socks for the June category, which may not be repeated. The two exceptions to the two project "rule" - I can work on the handbag project if I am out of the house; if I have a block of time during the day I can seam the cardigan.

The first two projects I chose were the sideways edging on one of the shawls and the easier of the socks on the go. Why did I choose these two projects to start? The shawl is a newer project started on a recent trip; I had already decided to finish it before the other shawl; it would be nice to finish a newer project; the socks are the only easy project (apart from charity knitting) I have on the go plus there is a chance I can finish them within the challenge deadline.

I am pleased to say that this plan is working. I have very nearly finished the shawl edging (and have not run out of yarn) and I have found time in daylight to seam the cardigan so that is gradually being finished. I can really see a few projects being finished by the end of the month. The problem is going to be when I finish the socks as that is the only easy project I have on the go. I want to finish them by the end of this month and I hope that one of the patterns I want to cast on for the June challenge will count as an easy project.

Vacation Knitting

Yes another vacation. This time a trip to the other side of the country with my husband. As I still have plenty of WIPs I decided to take one of those - a complicated looking but not hard sock that I cast on in April for that month's challenge. While away I finished the first sock and started the second one.

I did start a new project. It is a long flight from California to Washington D.C. and I took a new knitting project. I don't know when I last knitted on an airplane; I have always been worried about knitting needles being taken. Yes, I know my crochet hooks were taken in Mexico but that leaves one loose loop, knitting needles being taken would result in many loose loops. Anyway it was one flight within the continental US and I'd heard that knitting needles were acceptable. I needed a new hat for charity so I cast one on just before we left and worked on it on the outward flight.

There's always a bonus on vacation if I can check out a yarn shop and I was happy to do that this trip as I met up with a very good friend who had moved to Virginia a year ago. She had told me that the yarn shops now local to her had a very different selection to the ones local to us so we spent a day together, yarn shopping and chatting.

We went to Fibre Space in Alexandria Virginia and I saw yarn that I had heard about but never seen in person. I was actually quite restrained and did not buy just because. Luckily for my wallet there was some lovely yarn in thicker weights which I knew would not be suitable for my current climate. The yarns I remember seeing were, Hedgehog Fibers but not sock weight; Neighborhood Fiber Company, I was drawn to a red but they only had it in worsted weight; Miss Babs, very hard to make a choice; Hazel Knits, yummy sock yarn. There was other yarn but these are the ones I remember probably because I either bought some or seriously thought about it.

I ended up with one skein of Hazel Knits socks which will become a Christmas pair of socks for hubby.




And two skeins of Miss Babs 3 ply which will become a shawl but no idea of pattern yet.




I also came away with a ball of Juniper Moon Farm Findley that my friend gave me. She had purchased it on the first San Diego yarn crawl because she was branching out from her usual colours but realized this was not her thing but was totally mine. This will go very nicely with the yarn left over from the cardigan I finished recently. If only I could find the pattern I came across on Ravelry recently.

Have I Finished Anything?

well yes I have. This week I finished a couple of hats for charity - and I took photos of them. And I completely used up two balls of yarn so that is a nice addition to yarn out.

The first two hats are the same pattern except one was knitted from the top down to make sure I used up every little piece of yarn and it did work out very well as there was just a few inches after the bind off row. (I finished the first one way back in January.)

The pattern is Barley, a free pattern from Tin Can Knits.



The other hat was crocheted and I used the Tulips hat pattern again. Having made it for charity last year.



For someone who doesn't like to knit the same pattern twice because there are so many patterns available, I certainly seem to like to repeat hat patterns.

I was hoping that I would also have a finished shawl to show off. The one shown here, because I was very close to finish the border. Problem is it is a sideways knitted border and I had estimated incorrectly how much yarn I needed. It was worked in a second colour so I pulled it all out and am just working a few rows of stocking stitch before the border. No timescale now for when it will be finished. This is what it looked like before I pulled the brown out.



On the sewing front, I finished a quilt, no photos as it is a gift, and I made good inroads into another one.

Jelly Roll Quilt Finished

Remember this? I am happy to report that it is now a fully completed quilt.

After finishing the Jelly Roll Race, I knew I wanted to make mine bigger. I started by adding narrow borders in contrasting colours and then added a fancy border in the same fabric as the main quilt. (I had purchased two jelly rolls.) I added the squares at each corner so that the diagonals did not run into each other. Although I hadn't planned it this way, there was just enough of the lighter orange fabric for the binding.

I am glad I made it bigger so that it gets used as a throw also the additions make it more visually interesting. I like the idea of the Jelly Roll Race as a fun sewing day with friends but without the border details my quilt is pretty blah. I won't be making it again but if I did I would want a range of fabric with a lot of contrast.

A Binding Glitch

There's a saw that says "measure twice, cut once" and my situation wasn't as bad as that but definitely a case of check before you sew.

I have been (slowly) making a quilt and it is now ready for binding. A few weeks ago I made the binding which involved cutting the required number of strips sewing them into one length and then folding and pressing them in half. So this week I was ready to machine sew the strip to the quilt. I started with a large roll of fabric, of which, of course, I don't have a photo, and merrily started sewing. As the roll quickly got smaller I started to think there wasn't going to be enough and as I got closer to the end I wondered if I had ever checked the length of binding against the actual perimeter of the quilt.

I certainly hadn't checked before starting to sew and I ended up with more quilt than binding. But oh so close.



This wasn't a huge problem but as the quilt is queen size it is a bit unwieldy. I had plenty of fabric from which to cut another strip which I pressed in half before joining to the end already on the quilt. It was just a pain stitching the small seam and supporting the weight of the quilt. I managed it and finished the edge. Now it just needs to be hand sewn on the back. I am very excited about this quilt as it is a surprise gift, so no full photos yet.