Trying for a Restful Weekend

After spending three energetic days with my oldest grandson (almost 14) who came visiting, I've prescribed a restful weekend for myself.  Really, it's just an excuse to sew and knit non-stop!?!

His activity requests were hiking and visiting with his younger cousins, the triplets!  He had three meetups with the triplets including a visit to the Cleveland Zoo.  

One of his aunts and I hiked him up to one of our local beauty spots and on his last day, he and I did a creek hike.  His mom is a biologist who has been taking him along on stream studies since birth and wow, can he spot a crayfish!!  It was a stinky hot day so being in a creek was perfect and I don't think I would have done a creek hike this summer without his request.   This is one of the pictures he took on our adventure.

 While he was here, there was no machine sewing and just a little hand stitching and knitting.  But I did manage to end July with one finish!  After finishing the hand quilting around the central part of each "diamond" motif, I choose this multi-color print for the binding.  I find it's a good solution for quilts with so many colors when I can't decide on the binding color -- unexpected but effective!!

 While he got some quiet time (napping and/or googling), I snuck in a little knitting on the current Musselburgh Hat project.  I'm working with a double strand of fingering yarn combining a few leftovers with one main skein.  Sue Carney just announced on Instagram that she is going to lead a KAL (knitalong) using this hat and scrap yarn.  It begins September 1 and goes for six weeks.  Gives me a goal for finishing this hat so I can start another one!  Want to join?  

Find the details at Instagram -- @smcarn

EDIT: Two days after I posted this, I "frogged" this hat back to the crown and started over again!?!  It was HUGE because I had misread my gauge -- it would not have fit anyone.  It's so hard to make the decision to undo so much work but it will be best in the long run.

I finished another unit for the EPP project I've got going.  This is half of step 10 -- only step 11 to go!!!

And the I-Spy UFO is layered and being quilted this weekend!  I have interlined it with a (much washed) flannel sheet instead of batting -- economical and I think it will make a good floor mat for playing I Spy with kids!

The "restful" weekend started after lunch Friday and found me piecing on two projects -- Homage to Grandmother's Flower Garden continues to grow and I made three more scrappy log cabin blocks as my "leaders/enders" while building chains of hexagons for part 31 of Homage.

I put the finished blocks on the design wall to determine what the last six blocks needed to "be" -- I've learned the hard way when making scrappy quilts that I like the results betters when I stop to evaluate and make the final fabric decisions based on what the quilt "needs".  

I made three more with some dark prints as what was already pieced looked out of balance with so few darks used.  Once I added the new blocks to the group, I moved blocks around to break up the big (blobby) areas of pink.  There are just three blocks left to piece and it would be wonderful to have this quilt top ready to quilt by the end of the weekend.  I'm going to gift it as a retirement present and the big day is September 10 so need to keep moving!!

The color and fabric palette has evolved as I've worked on this project -- I started with a couple old charm square paks, some leftover layer cake squares and strips from my 2 1/2" "sourdough" box.  The pattern writer suggests cutting everything before starting, but I've been cutting as I go -- that means more spontaneity because it's hard to "visualize" what I haven't pieced.  And there is less waste because I'm cutting just what I need as I go.   I also find it easier to achieve a scrap look by just focusing on the fabric palette for a couple blocks at a time -- as long as I like the combination in one block, it will work in the finished quilt.  Each diagonal row (upper left to lower right) is the same block configuration but it's interesting how the "look" of the block changes depending on the placement of lights and darks.

It's a simple quilt and a good chance to stretch my creative brain -- feeling creative doesn't happen without exercising ideas and making mistakes.

So, it's time to head back to the studio for a couple hours of piecing.

Hope you are having a restful and content weekend!

Mary