I just submitted my entry form to this year’s Kentucky State Fair. Whee!
I didn’t end up submitting anything last year, using “Oh, I want to at least see one fair before I submit something” as an excuse. This year, I have no excuse, so I submitted my entry form online today.
I’ve entered two categories. The first is
Knitting: Hand-knitted sweater for adult, – variety of stitch or pattern (other than Aran, jacquard or Fair Isle), any material or color.
This is the sweater for that category:
My February Lady Sweater. I think this is one of my favorite knits, ever.
The other category is:
Knitting: Hand knitted socks (2)
Here are the socks for that category:
Hmmm. OK, so they’re not exactly completed yet. And since the entry form did specify two (2) socks, I better get to work! Luckily, I don’t have to drop off my entries until August 14th, so I should have plenty of time to finish them. Provided nothing goes wrong.
I’ll let you know if I just jinxed myself by saying that.
Sorry for the sudden radio silence! I’ve been working on some super secret knitting projects (still can’t post photos of them, or else I’ll spoil the surprise!). This has taken over my crafty time, so Confidence Quilt #2 is no further along than when you last saw it.
In other news -
I’ve also been spending some time watching a mama bird that has taken up residence in our garage. Isn’t she something?
I’ve been watching the 60 Blocks of Summer group on Flickr. This is a group of quilters who are challenging themselves to create 60 quilt blocks by the end of summer. I’m nowhere near ready for that type of commitment, but I’m amazingly inspired and amazed by what these folks are creating. If you’re looking for a quilting challenge, I think there’s still time to join the fun!
I’ve become obsessed with the Bayview Street cardigan pattern from Elinor at Exercise Before Knitting. I’ve been doing so much gift knitting lately, I’m excited to start a new “for me” project, and this looks fantastic.
I’ve updated my “About” page and have re-done the site theme again. I think I’m happy with it now. But if anything is wonky, just let me know!
And because I can’t post without a photo. Happy Wednesday!
Ruby says “Happy Wednesday” too!
First, my mom sent me lots of details about the vintage quilt I posted about. I’ll follow-up on that shortly.
When I first started knitting, I made a lot of hats. A LOT of hats. And the hats I made, I made with the yarn recommended in the pattern. I knew I could substitute yarns, I just wasn’t experienced or confident enough to branch out and try new things. While some knitters will tackle a complicated adult-sized fair-isle sweater as their first knitting project, or even argyle socks, I know how I operate. For me, it’s all about baby steps to instill confidence to keep going.
I’m doing the same thing with my quilting. Behold, the beginning of Confidence Quilt #2:
This is the Charm Squares Baby Quilt pattern from Oh Fransson! on Sew Mama Sew! (Gotta love the exclamation points!). I’ve discovered that for me, the absolute most difficult part of quilting is choosing the fabrics. It’s the step that stops me in my tracks. Let’s face it, if I don’t like a yarn I’m using for a particular project, I can unravel and reuse it. But after you chop up your fabric with a rotary cutter, well, there’s just no going back.
Enter the charm pack, a bundle of 5″ squares of a line of fabric that are designed to work together (in this case, Verna by Kate Spain, which I absolutely love). For this quilt, I had to choose about half of the pack to cut in two for the smaller pieces, then choose the order they were sewn together. To save myself from fretting over each square’s placement, I relied on chance. I grabbed half of the squares randomly to cut in half for the smaller pieces, then chose again randomly for the final placement. A couple of tweaks here and there to avoid similar fabrics in the same row, and voila! Placement was complete.
I’m holding off quilting it together until I practice my machine quilting a little more. I’m hoping to put some pot holders together this weekend, and practice machine quilting those for some practice. But I’m telling myself I don’t have to be perfect, because quilting is going to take practice just like knitting did. Any forward momentum is good, as long as I’m still having fun!
I’ve taken on a new appreciation for a well-loved item in my possession.
Namely, this vintage quilt:
I have always loved this quilt, but am a wee bit embarrassed that I don’t know more about it. It was handmade by my grandmother? Great-aunt? way back in the… 40s? Maybe? OK, I really have no idea. Mom, Dad, if you’re reading this, can you shed some light on the subject?
I do know that it is old and well-loved. And was a wee bit wrinkled, as it had been in storage since we moved from Chicago over a year and a half ago.
I’m not sure exactly what to call this motif – it looks like fans to me. It could have been machine pieced, but I’m not too sure. I do know that it was hand quilted, and the stitching is beautiful. The white space between the fans is a simple crossed lines, and each fan has it’s own detail. There’s also a scroll detail on the sashing that I didn’t get a shot of.
The fabrics are a crazy array of prints and colors, but they work beautifully as a whole. And my absolute most favorite detail is the one fan that has two tiny strips of quilting missing. I’m convinced that it was done on purpose, to make sure the recipient paid attention to how well made it was.
Now that I’m working on my own quilting projects, I have a new found appreciation for all of the work that went into this. It’s truly amazing, and I’m so lucky that I was able to steal it from my mom gifted this family treasure.
FYI – With this post, I’m debuting a new look on the site! If anything looks strange, or doesn’t load, or has gone missing that you absolutely can’t live without, PLEASE let me know. Feel free to use my contact page, or e-mail me directly at almostcrafty (at) gmail (dot) com. Thank you!
