Wednesday, September 24, 2008

More Quilts!

I've finished quite a few projects in the last week or so. Let's go up to the guest bedroom to look at two new quilts:
This is the super-sized queen double nine patch I pieced last year. It was going to be for sale at our quilt show next month, but I like it too much to part with it. Louis likes it too - she's often napping right in the center of the bed in a tiny little ball (Louis is a cat, and I moved her for this photo). Here's a close-up so you can see the beautiful quilting done by my friend Vickie:

This is the second red & white quilt for the guest bedroom. It's a pattern by Buggy Barn, from their book Certifiably Crazy. I like several patterns from this book.

I forgot to take the sheet off the chair in the corner - sorry. We cover it because the cats love to sleep in/on that chair and get it all hairy. Rather than having to constantly vacuum the chair, we cover it and then wash the sheet often.
This quilt was also quilted by Vickie.

I've finished some knitting too, but still have to take the pictures. I've been working on little wool and cotton owls, yes - owls, to sell at our quilt show. They are all done except for the eyes. I must do some button shopping so I can finish them. More information will follow...



Sunday, September 7, 2008

Burnt Timber Trail and a Flurry of Finishes

On August 27, Marcia, Kim, Robin and I hiked the Burnt Timber Trail, accessible by driving past Lemon Reservoir and up a bit. The trail was a steady, long climb through Pine and Aspen trees. It was a good hike, lower in elevation than Highland Mary Lakes, but very nice.


At the top, there was a large cluster of Aspen trees that had lots of carvings in them. The earliest date we found was 1949. I like the eye carved into the tree on the right.



Over the long holiday weekend, we tried to go camping, but it just started POURING on Saturday afternoon and did not let up all night, so we packed up the car Sunday morning and headed home. It's just not that fun to hang out in a tent for more than 16 hours. It rained all day Sunday, so it was a good weekend for finishing stuff. I put the binding on this gigantic quilt:




This is the infamous nine patch I made from all of my batiks as of July 1, 2007, which is when I started the quilt. I cut a 6" square from every batik I owned, then cut the squares into 2" strips, then joined the strips into little strip sets and cut them up again to sew into nine patches. There are 580 different fabrics in this 108" square quilt, and it brightens up our bedroom nicely. Here's a little close-up shot:

Then I finished these cute socks last week. They are the Coquette pattern from 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. The yarn is Tofutsies and feels very nice and light against my feet. My friend, Jeannette, gave me the yarn after she decided she didn't want to knit socks on US size 1 needles (thanks Jeannette!). I didn't mind - they went really fast.

That's not my leg, by the way. I bought a "foot model" on eBay so I could take pictures of the socks without contorting my body at odd angles to get photos of my feet!