Free Motion Mavericks - Week 315 - Creative Block

 

Under stress I knit.  It absorbs all the frustration of the past few months.  Much as I would like to be organised and do some serious sewing again, for the moment my brain is total stew.  I have got a relaxing project lined up, making lavender bags to hang in wardrobes, so I am sure that will stir up a little creativity from the murky depths.  So, nothing to show you this week, apart from just a tiny glimpse of a little coat in the making.

Here goes for Week 315:-

Many thanks to Sew Yummy for linking up last time with her nine patch quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more. 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Working on a Pattern

 

Once I start working on a pattern, I just keep on going until I am satisfied.  Back in September 2019 I made a toddler's coat in chunky pink yarn.  Last year I decided to see how it would turn out if I just made it in ordinary double knitting yarn on size 9 (3.75mm), so it would be scaled down to baby size.  It turned out smaller than I expected, big enough for a 3 month old baby.  The green suggested baby boy to me, so I put the buttons on the boys' side and gave it buttons the same as on the toddler grandad cardy (now owned by my very handsome great-nephew Jude, who looks absolutely cracking in it). 

The pale blue yarn woven through the work up the sleeve was just to help me keep count of the rows when increasing every 4th row.  It can easily be pulled out, but I have left it in for reference while I am still developing this pattern.

Because I loved the flecked yarn so much, I thought it would be a good idea to try it in different shades.  That was when I found that it must have been discontinued, but after scouring the internet I managed to buy 10 balls of pink and 5 of mauve.  I checked with my son and daughter in law to see which colour they would prefer for a a coat for Emilia, and the reply was mauve.

So the next practice had to be in pink.  I made it jacket length, and added a cable design down the front edges and down the centre of the sleeves.  This meant I could keep track of the rows when knitting the sleeves, so no need for any marker yarn.  The added refinement was a button and buttonhole to fasten the collar in place at the back, so it can stay neatly folded down at the front above the third button.  For chilly weather, the collar can stand up and be buttoned up to the chin - the top button is hidden when the collar is folded down.

I was quite pleased with the result, even though I had a bit of a knitting crisis with it.  When I was just reaching the collar, I noticed that about twelve rows previously, for the shoulder shaping at one side at the back, I had accidentally shifted the decreasing two stitches across.  The option was either undo all those rows (about two inches), or drop the stitches and pick them up with the decreases in the right position.  I went for option 2.  It took hours.  Now I am watching out like a hawk to make sure I don't repeat that mistake again too soon.  I can't believe I merrily worked so many rows without noticing it.

Having finished the pink jacket in under four balls of yarn, I knew I had plenty of the mauve to make a longer coat for Emilia.  So here it is, with a slightly neater collar than the one on the pink jacket, and button down cuffs.  If, as my husband predicts, she ends up sucking the cuff buttons, they can easily be removed.

This time I managed to keep all the sleeve shaping in line, but just as I was reaching the collar...

Why don't I plan on paper, you might ask?  Because my maths is rubbish.  I'd rather just make up patterns as I go along.  And I can make as many mistakes as I like while watching murder mysteries on telly.

...just as I was reaching the collar I noticed that the back was narrower than it should be.  The option was to have a tighter collar than on the pink jacket, or unpick about four rows and work that section without decreases.  Again, I went for option 2.

The error can be blamed on my maths.  Despite counting several zillion times to check I had the right number of stitches, I finally worked out that I should have cast on 201 stitches, not 191. 

So some time soon I shall be casting on 201 stitches for the next version in pink.

2020 was definitely my knitting year, when I cracked the mysteries of seamless garments.  Now, perhaps I should work on my planning.  

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 313 - The Skirt Is Now A Cushion

Christmas present from me to me.  Just what I wanted!  I finished it just before Christmas, and now it props me up on my computer chair, the one shown in the picture.  I must be getting old, because I like my back to be upright and well padded, whereas my daughter sits at the computer and promptly flings the cushion to the floor.

The skirt let me down last winter by splitting up the back seam as I got into the car.  In November I started work on the quilting, played around with paisley designs, and managed to get the cushion cover finished just before Christmas.

It isn't my neatest job ever.  I didn't manage to get my edges straight.  Being an old skirt, it still flared a little at the bottom edge.  This meant that the overlap for the buttonholes ended up crooked.  Also, I didn't have three buttons the same colour, so I used the last two olive green buttons that I had, and put a red one of the same size in the middle.

Now that the weather is chilly, I am quite missing my lovely warm woollen skirt.  I also have plans for an old jacket that I haven't worn for decades.

Here goes for Week 313 :-

Many thanks to Cheryl for linking up with her Hot Wheels quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

A Picture for Sunday - Christmas Day Sunrise

Not being a lark, I don't see the sunrise very often.  At the moment the sun is rising after 8 am., so if the sky is clear (about once a fortnight) and I can rouse myself, I like to take an early morning walk.  Christmas Day was one of those rare occasions.  It was a beautiful way to start the day.

Happy New Year!

 Every best wish for the New Year and Christmas (no, I'm not late, it's still Christmas!) and I hope everyone is well and able to be with their family. 

After the weird year we have had, I have to confess that I wasn't looking forward to Christmas.  Not being able to plan proper get togethers is brutal.  We have had our daughter with us for a few weeks now, and we had a nice quiet pleasant time at home.  

The lack of enthusiasm in advance meant that I left it too late to buy a Christmas tree, so I had to improvise.  In the front garden we have a scrubby little self-sown bay tree that we have never got round to digging up properly.  In the front room we had a vase of fresh roses that I hadn't bothered to throw out, and which had dried in the vase.  The substitute Christmas tree was a couple of branches of bay with the dried roses tied to it.  It looked wonderful for a few days, but we never got round to putting the branches in water, so the leaves all dried up and curled. Do you detect a theme here?

Today I made chicken stock with left over bones from our Christmas dinner and threw in a couple of bay leaves.  Believe me, they were the most aromatic leaves ever!  The rest of the leaves will be stored in a jar to use in the kitchen.  We should have enough to last us for the whole year and beyond.

Let's see what 2021 has in store for us...