All posts for the month July, 2014

Crocheted Shawl

I’ll admit I don’t have the best track record when it comes to finishing crochet projects. Part of it is I haven’t yet blocked any of my projects, and I have a reluctance to try (for no good reason).

But this one I am really going to finish. This shawl project is for a friend who just started cancer treatment. Her favorite color is yellow, and she’s already cold all the time. So I’m going to send her this sunny shawl to wrap up in.

I had intended for it to be a prayer shawl (where you say prayers or think of positive intentions for the recipient as you make it), but I find I have to think about the act of crocheting too much to think of anything else. Maybe once I get the pattern down better I’ll be able to think positive thoughts for her. In the meantime, I’ve just been singing church songs in back of my mind as I crochet.

I’ll be taking a few days off for a long weekend, and I hope to get a lot done on the shawl. I’ll report back next week!

1 Comment

by Christine Doyle on July 30, 2014 • Permalink

Posted in Crochet

Posted by Christine Doyle on July 30, 2014

https://christinedoyle.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/crocheted-shawl/

This One Was Supposed To Be Easy

For several weeks now, I’ve been struggling with a quilt that just ended up being really hard. It took a good bit of thought to begin with, and then it didn’t turn out quite the way I had wanted. (It’s a gift, so I’m holding off on showing it here.) Anyway, after that, I wanted to work on an easy, mindless quilt.

So I took out the Riley Blake fabric I had gotten at the Herrschners sale. There is enough going on in the fabric that I decided to let it do the work.

I pulled some primary-colored fabrics from my stash, along with a bit of green. Within minutes, I decided to cut the main fabric into 16″ squares (because it was going to do the work) and then sash those squares with my stash fabric. Easy! I got the whole top planned, cut, and pieced in a couple of hours.

So, who can tell where this is going? Yep . . . I didn’t like it. I didn’t like that I had sashed only two sides of each square, but that’s all the stash fabric I had. I tried to remedy that by adding the turquoise fabric to the two sides that didn’t have sashing on the squares. But I didn’t like that, and I didn’t want it on all four sides, either. And I didn’t like that the blue and turquoise fabrics were so similar.

The “easy” quilt top turned out to be one that I took apart. After ripping the seams and pressing the fabric, I went a lot more straightforward on my second attempt. I kept like colors together. I just did easy.

It’s very simple, I know. But I think it will be a nice charity quilt for a baby or preschool boy. It’s certainly bright and fun. I’m thinking about quilting it in an all-over pattern of stars. Of course, I’ll need to learn how to quilt stars. But that should be easy.

Traveling Quilt Block #2

At tonight’s Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild meeting, I’ll be showing the quilt block I made for Kim’s Traveling Quilt. Kim had asked that everyone in the group make a mini quilt (9 inches square) and finish it with white sashing.

I’m a little nervous about what Kim with think of my block. It’s a good bit different from her original block.

Kim’s block is quite a bit darker than mine. While she gave some of her fabrics for us to use, I wanted to add some of mine as well. For the first block I made I pulled from my stash of solids.

But it just wasn’t me . . . at all. I was in an improvy mood, so I decided to try some wonky stars instead. And I’m also on a kick where I make a few blocks and then piece them into a solid background (see my Pinwheel Quilt).