July Free-Motion Quilting Challenge

The last day of the month and I once again just finish the challenge.  Actually it was done yesterday - but we lost the Internet just as I was getting ready to post!

This months challenge by Angela Walters used straight lines to enclose quilting designs - she used a swirl design in her tutorial.  This technique is good for large open areas of a quilt.  I struggled with this as I don't tend to have large open areas in my quilts.

I did not want to make yet another 10" square sample and finally decided to randomly piece some scrap fabrics together and make a place mat out of the finished project.  My guild in Charleston, Cobblestone Quilters, has two charity projects this year and one is to make place mats for Meals on Wheels.

I had three fat quarters of Terrie Hanock's fabric for Robert Kaufman in three different color waves (the fabric with all the colored circles in the piece).  I used one to pull colors of the other fabrics and the backing and will use another for the binding.  After I pieced it together I used a variegated thread to do Angela's technique of tiles but I used a loopy swirl for my design inside of each tile.

I need to work on quilting straighter lines - but I think it makes a very cheerful place mat.  Now to bind it before next guild meeting.

A Little Knitting - Wingspan

Along with teaching a few classes over the summer at Stitch n' Sew in beginning sewing and quilting, doing my free-motion quilting challenge, and working a few quilts and challenges, I have been knitting a shawl/scarf called Wingspan that I found on Ravelry.

I started working on this when I was in Raleigh for the Animazement convention with my daughter and it was a perfect pattern to work on while doing other stuff and being around other people.  Basically it is just knitting with short rows with an occasional cast on.

I used yarn from Brooks Farm in Lancaster, Texas that I picked up at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair last October.  It is an alpaca, wool and mohair mix.  Lovely yarn - only one problem - as I was getting near the final "wing" I could see that I would not have enough to finish.  I did the only sensible thing and knit faster - as if that would make the yarn go further.

I eked out the last few rows of the wing and managed to knit all the way across the scarf one time and then it was clear - I was out of yarn.  I needed to knit four more rows and bind off.  Not going to happen with this little tiny bit of yarn.

Luckily I remember having some left of yarn from some finger-less gloves I knit last year and dug into the stash.  It had a little purple in it but it was the best I had.  So the last four rows and the bind off were going to be in this yarn.

You can't even see the where one yarn stops and one ends.  Now if it would only cool down so I could wear it - not going to happen until October or November or maybe even December!