Knitting and Stitching

I have been very lucky to be part of a knitting group that meets every month. They have inspired me to take up my knitting after years of neglect. I have loved the company of these diverse and creative women and also the feeling of having wool, once again, wound around my fingers.

This week I finished making a jumper out of Amy Butler cotton, blended with wool.

 I love the lacy waistband. 

After lying around for months, I finally pinned and quilted this triangle quilt.
It is the first, but I think not the last, attempt I will make with triangles.
It was surprisingly easy to make.

I added a few more strips to the backing for my husband's recycled shirt quilt.

And I gave away this little Apples quilt to my colleague's baby, Ruby Rose.

It used to be so hard to part with any of my quilts but now I find I can let go so much more easily.

I guess, after making at least 50 plus quilts, you learn to let go.

The smile on the recipient is worth it.

My first all over quilted quilt

I spend way too many hours looking at other people's blogs. After a while I discovered that quilters take bits and pieces left over from other projects and string them together to make new patches and then put them together to make quilts! So I decided to experiment.

I surrounded the oddly sized patches in green and then scribble quilted all over it. I know there is a correct term for it but I forget what it's called at the moment. The immediate family response was that no one likes green and the quilt was cot size - way too small to snuggle up in so what was the whole point of making it?

They just don't get it. Firstly I used up lots of my favourite Amy Butler fabric that I love and couldn't bear to throw out. Secondly I quilted the whole thing all by myself. Thirdly I am going to dare to throw it in the wash and tumble dry it to see what happens to it. It's all been a grand experiment and once I had put the blue binding on it, I rather liked what it looked like.

Secretly escaping

The week was over and I had barely had a thought for making anything except dinner. So on Friday night, after we had eaten, I snuck into my lounge which is the "quiet room" in the house, shut the door, put my ipod on and managed to do some hand sewing on one of my unfinished quilts. This is the second quilt I have made from the same pattern but the results are so different.