How sad is it....

when the only thing holding you back is not having the energy to hook up your camera?? Hmm?

Well, I got some time with a nearly empty house on Saturday. This quilt got bound and washed. Still not sure about its final destination, but it's probably Project Linus.



I cut out some strips for the monkey's log cabin quilt (do you remember it?)



And I cut out the lego quilt.



Following the happythings tutorial, sewed a whole slew of 2" strips end to end...


Frankly, I did have some trouble with "right sides together". Luckily it's not the sort of thing where you have to do seam ripping. It's very imprecise and random to start with so you can just cut off the seam and re-do it the right way. But I do have two inside out strips sewn in.

Eventually, I got this:



But it was not quite as big as I wanted it. So I cut some more strips, 4" wide and repeated the process until it was about 10" wide by long enough.



Left to do: iron both pieces, cut the one with 4" strips in half the long way and attach as a border to the long sides of the main rectangle. Sandwich, quilt, bind and wash. It turns out I have a lot of the solid blue (no idea why.) so it's destined to be the back. Maybe with some miscellaneous blocks added in.

On the knitting front? Not much going on. Making some progress on the first of DH's socks. I really like them and am tempted to keep them for myself. Also working on the baby blanket for the spider monkey. Haven't had the energy to wind the yarn for the baby sweaters and knitting puts me to sleep these days anyway. And my fingers feel stiff.

Doing my part to help clear off the dining room table

See how the only project next to Old Faithful is the quilt for the monkey? I was inspired by Ashley, who is cranking out lovely quilts like nobody's business, and also by Happythings, who had an interesting post about strip piecing. (The one with the diagonals is fabulous but I need to get over the foundation piecing hump. I suffer some disbelief over the technique.)

While DH got La to take a nap, this is what I worked on.



It's about the size of a prepackaged crib quilt sized batting.

Thanks for all of the input on what to use for the back. I went wit hthe striped seersucker. I liked how soft it was after it was washed and how "Florida" it felt (like something to wear to the beach), how the colors matched the front very well, and that the seersucker reminded me of a pair of overall shorts my mom made me when I was 10 and the front reminds me of a whole-cloth quilt my Great Grandma Lanning (dad's grandma) made me when I was little (sentimentality goes together). Somewhere in there I must have decided that I was the target audience - I was the one who needed to like it.

A close up of the quilting pattern in a place where it's not so wonky looking. If I were thinking more clearly, I would have made the quilting only in one direction, so that the seam allowance vagaries wouldn't be so noticeable. I still sort of like it's jauntiness and how each of the colors pops against the grey.

I've got another major project in progress. Here's a hint.


Those are maternity pants that I just hemmed. Apparently, the Gap means it when they say "Long." They were a really good sale, though. And they fit. Worth turning under. Things should be pretty interesting around here in December.

Here are the accompaning new projects:

1. A garter-dishcloth baby blanket in Cascade 220 supersoft. Red and Orange. I really liked it in theory, now I'm not so sure about it. It's a little ketchup and mustardy.

2. The Debbie Bliss cardigan in a recent Vogue Knitting. In Socks That Rock heavyweight. Color: Mustang Sally. I just couldn't get into the Baby Cashmerino colors. Too smooth.

3. EZ Surplice Jacket from the same issue of Vogue Knitting. STR Heavyweight in Lemongrass. Hopefully both of those little sweaters really are one-skein projects.

Um. And I just washed 7 fat-quarters that I had been hoarding to try the strip piecing with.

Random Update

1. I've been sewing. I got these done this weekend for La and started a pair of shorts for me. The ones for me are kind of tricky. They have pockets. Oh, and they're going to be out of that stripey material. They might turn out to be a little overwhelming.



2. I got the "Magic 28" socks done. They need a quick bath before being sent off to the Afghans for Afghan's program.



3. I made some progress on DH's brown sock. I'm past the part of where I ripped it out before, and am now on the heel flap. It's good movie knitting. We watched Wordplay on Friday - I really liked the movie. I come from kind of a puzzle family. Jigsaws, Scrabble, Crosswords, Boggle, cards, and other games. There's kind of a high percentage of engineers in my family. And the ones who aren't engineers ended up being attorneys, bankers, librarians, teachers, mechanics. Still working puzzles for a living.



4. We made some progress in the bathroom.

What's left? Painting the trim and the door, finishing the aquarium stand table, reinstalling the medicine cabinet.