New Quilts, Good Bye Splendid Sampler

Back in 2016/17 I was struggling with the Splendid Sampler QAL, making two new blocks every week. Or at least almost so. Here are some of my 100 blocks waiting for assembly.

Mid March the same year I had managed to create two halves of a king size quilt, each with 10 rows of 5 blocks, and borders on three sides. I was hoping to quilt it like that on my own machine, but the task seemed overwhelming, and so the top halves found their place at the bottom of my unfinished quilt tops.

Finally this Autumn the idea came to me to make smaller quilts by some rearranging of blocks and making new borders. This was the bottom left corner with one vertical row rearranged to make the quilt rather long than wide, 4 x 5 blocks, and a new border in brown added.

Top left corner 5 x 6 blocks as it was, with original borders added where there were none.

Bottom right 5 x 6 blocks of the original arrangement, just borders added to match the existing ones.

And finally the top right corner with similar changes as in the other smaller quilt.

These four lap size quilts joined the Paper Dolls quilt to keep people warm when they go out in wheelchairs or just want to take a rest and feel the nice flannel backing and look at the pictures of cupcakes and coffee cups, flip flops and flowers, and pincushions and sewing machines, and all kinds of stars.

It feels good to have this finished, and to have done it in a practical way, all materials from my stash and no problems with the quilting.

100 finished, one lost and found

Finally the one hundred different blocks for my Splendid Sampler quilt are done. This was a tricky one but I liked the look of it:

This one, Centered, is the number 100.

I placed the blocks approximately in the numerical order and made some changes to avoid big light areas. While doing that. I misplaced the XOXO block. Couldn't find it anywhere, not on the floor, not under the rows already sewn together. Not under my table, or the ironing board. Not in the bin. The next day, no result in my search. Frustrated, I started to arrange a new row for sewing, and there it was, lurking under another block, completely hidden because the other block had the sashings on but the XOXO didn't,

I need to quilt this in two halves, and join them in the end. I hope this will work out. The two halves of my top are now finished, with borders and all.

The binding will be in the same gray as the shadow and the border.

Today Mr K. took me to the big fabric shop the get the batting and backing for this quilt. I only bought one other fabric, and it will be for my next project.

The campaign for blue and white hand knitted socks for every baby born in Finland this year is going well. Many hospitals have received their full estimate of socks needed, and the others are at least at 60 %. This week I took my newest lot of ten pairs to the Flying Mitten:

With the yarn I have left, I think I can knit five more pairs and reach up to 60 pairs.

Almost there

With these four new Splendid Sampler blocks I'm almost there. Five more to go and I have my one hundred blocks. This one is called Gran's button jar:

Here is Sunshine:

First Purse:

and The Early Bird:

I'm trying to pick the easiest of the remaining patterns, and I may need to check the bonus block possibilities too. Without the support of fellow bloggers I might have given up a long time ago.

This morning I tried to catch the almost full moon in the pale pink sky when the sun was just rising. It is there, between the trees, about one third from the right side:

In the opposite direction the colours were much stronger:

February fun and some garment sewing

Believe it or not, I don't just sit and knit socks. Before Christmas I did some creative work and designed a protective garment for a very young artist as a Christmas gift.

I used a little girl's dress pattern but  as this is supposed to be an apron with sleeves, the back covers just the shoulders. The material is PU coated so the little guy will remain dry even when he uses watercolours.

Then I have been working on the Splendids again:

As I was itching to see what the suggested sashings would look like, I tried them on a new block:

And I crabbed some more blocks to see how they work together. It seems that my shadow grey is very close to a solid light blue I have used for the blocks and therefore a darker colour would have looked better.

This is what I bought and cut so this it is going to be.

Naturally I have been knitting too, so ten new pairs of baby socks are ready to be delivered.

My very pale blue 100% wool is almost used up, but no end of the project is in sight:

My sister P who is not a knitter, wanted to participate in this national project and bought four big balls of sock wool in blue and white for me to knit on her behalf. This means about 20 or more pairs of new socks. Luckily the Eurosport channel offers so much snooker, tennis and cycling that I will have a cozy time with Mr. K by my side and a knitting in my hands.

Dozens of socks and some blocks

The new year has started with knitting projects so I thought I'll show you some progress on that front first. Remember the Blue and White Baby Socks project? Our area is doing very well, about 47% of the socks needed  have been delivered to the local hospital's maternity ward. This lot is among the socks they already received.

These I took to the Lentävä Lapanen, Flying Mitten, on Wednesday, and they had two baskets full again waiting to be collected.

For Christmas I experimented with coloured yarns and my sock variation of the Aino'S mittens. These were all gifts to friends near and far.

This funny pattern was in a magazine, and I just had to buy some of that rainbow yarn to make them exactly like in the magazine, for someone who loves rainbow colours.

The rest of the burgundy yarn was enough for a pair of socks for our grandson, and he will get a pair of mittens too.

Sock front finally dealt with, I can show the little progress I have made with the Splendid Sampler quilt blocks. I have 79 normal blocks now and 8 bonus ones finished.

We had a late breakfast today, and before that I caught the beautiful pink and blue shades in the sky opposite the almost rising sun.

Quilt blocks for the sampler and some knitting

After a long absence from my sewing machine I have taken the bull by the horns again and finished ten new blocks for the Splendid Sampler. I have decided to make things easier for myself whenever I feel like it, so I used a striped fabric here instead of piecing the half circle, and I appliqued the halves on the background instead of piecing them. I don't like curved seams very much.

This one is done by the book (there will be a book with these patterns in the Spring!).

Plus Love:

First Stitch, block 71:

And here a group photo:

I have knitted little mittens

and a pair of pink and grey socks.

Winter arrived at the beginning of this month for about ten days, but is now gone again, with rain and plus degrees. It was pretty while it lasted.

Knitter's Block

This is my newest pair of socks, honey coloured honeycomb socks among autumn coloured bilberry leaves.

I like to spray the finished socks with water and stretch them out to dry to make my stitches look smoother and the pattern more visible.

My dear, clever Mr K. made me sock blocks in three sizes, and now the socks get a new, almost professional look.

Earlier this week we visited our DD Kaija and brought her some old things, and she designed and printed nice price tags for all my new socks and mittens. It was good to see her, and a lovely trip through beautiful landscapes, with the trees still in their autumn colours in bright sunshine.

Since my last post I have been busy with two more blocks for the Splendid Sampler quilt.

I'm again three blocks behind, but the ones I have waiting are all nice ones.

Our nights are cold by this time of the year so the morning temperatures are just around the freezing point.

 

Brassica and Calluna have replaced my summer annuals. It is time to cut down the perennials in the flowerbeds. All apples are cooked for the winter, I'm quite proud of my new record of 112 jars. They should last until next summer.

Struggling and enjoying

... that is how it goes when you start a QAL not knowing what the final quilt will be like. I have finished ten new blocks for the Splendid Sampler quilt since the last time I showed my blocks. Here is what I renamed a Dutch kitchen tile and an allotment shed, both appliqued.

Two more appliques, the nice and easy cone flower and the intimidating 17-piece monster.

Two examples of paper-piecing.On the left the straight forward flying geese, and on the right a nerve-wrecking shell. In the middle section I felt really, really stupid when I was unpicking the red fabric for the xth time and had to tape the paper foundation back together because I had just perforated that cursed line too many times. Finally I pinned the red in place from the right side, flipped it open and at that strange angle it finally went on the right way.

For this Dresden plate ring I just happened  to have the Easy Dresden ruler so I didn't need to cut the wedges with a template. I have learned to take liberties to change the blocks if I feel like it. Here I used a striped background fabric instead of piecing the background from 1½" strips.

My favourites are the pieced blocks. They don't take too much time to finish and still they can have something  interesting to offer. With two new blocks every week I prefer the blocks not be too time consuming. Making this quilt with friends and sharing our experiences makes it worth while.

The thornless hawthorn socks are finished. We don't have sea hawthorn bushes here, but the poisonous berries of the lily of the valley are the perfect colour too. I knitted the foot part without the bubbles and with a rib knit on top so the sock has a nice snug fit for shoes and the legs with bubbles to show.

Same yarns, and my grandmother's mitten pattern for the legs.

It is time to change to autumn flowers. We have had some chilly mornings with only 3C after a cloudless night, but some very lovely sunny and fresh days like today.