Tuesday 8 March 2016

Mystery Quilt finished and some more knitting

Last Autumn I pieced a Mystery Quilt designed by Kaaren of The Painted Quilt. I knew immediately it was going to be a birthday gift for Mr K.'s best friend.


When I could climb the stairs again to my upstairs sewing room, I machine quilted it. At first I tried a special quilting thread, but every crossing over seam allowances caused giant loops of the needle thread on the reverse. Adjusting tensions didn't help so I changed to Essential Threads and unpicked the first attempts.


The birthday was this week so I can show the finished quilt.



I really like the simple houses but my favourite in this quilt are the Flying geese.


The 4-patch rows at the top and bottom are my own addition. I wanted to add some length without making the quilt any wider. I also chose a simple narrower border instead of the wide one of the original design.

There is some knitting I haven't shown you yet. There was this pretty pattern for fingerless mittens in French. Melanie and I wanted to try it. Melanie made a Google translation into English but it didn't make much sense, so I brushed the dust off my school French and found out what it really was about. After that I made an unofficial English translation I knew Melanie would understand, and so she did. Her bright red version is at the end of this blog post. My version is naturally a cheerful brownish beige, a very lovely alpaca yarn:


It is too cold to go out in these just yet, and they would be too warm worn on top of my leather gloves. In a few weeks maybe?


After finishing these I knitted two pairs as a custom order for a dear friend 



and her friend.


As you can see, the colours are from my palette, a deep coffee brown in merino wool and a pale beige in 50/50 alpaca/wool.

Then I used up some yarn ends and knitted these socks for a little boy.


6 comments:

  1. Love the Mystery House Quilt. Lucky friend...
    Lovely warm gloves and socks too.

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  2. What a great birthday gift. I'm sure it will be used and loved for many years. I'm glad you were able to figure out the pattern for the fingerless gloves. They have just a hint of lacey femininity and look great in all the yarns you used. Knitting socks must be almost second nature to you by now.

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  3. What a special gift. I love Ulla colors...they're natural and earthy and warm and cozy. Those fingerless gloves are super pretty. You have been a busy lady!

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  4. Another beautiful quilt. Looks great in the sunlight. Love the fingerless gloves, nice edge.

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  5. Beautiful quilt, what a lovely present!
    I like the flying geese arrangement too,
    xx

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  6. What an amazing quilt! Mr. K's friend must have been startled by it! Love how you added your own ideas to it.
    And those half mittens: B E A U T I F U L ! ! ! You are so talentd, Ulla!

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