Venetian Tiles All Bound Up

Venetian Tiles (Stack n Whack pattern) 31" x 30-1/2"

Well, I said I was going to set my mind to finishing this little quilt this week and I did just that! The half-inch binding with the seam and turnover having to fall right on the edge of each side of a stripe was stressful to pull off and left me with more turned to the back than necessary to be caught by the machine stitching done from the front. And the weight of the fabric (think Kona or heavier) made for bulk at the corners leaving me with less than perfect miters. But as I've said before, this is just for me, to toss over the livingroom trunk, and the real showcase is those beautiful kaleidoscope blocks. 

I did steam it, hoping to pull out a bit more texture, but the quilting is still difficult to make out. I'm sensing a lot of shouldas, couldas about this one: should have used a different batt, could have used more visible thread, maybe should have done a single fold binding. And maybe someone can explain to me how a symmetrical top measured a half inch shorter in one direction. But it's still really beautiful. 

NOW We're Flying!

I've been pretty diligent this week, working on my two major projects - the crochet cardigan and the Venetian Tiles quilt. You might remember that the chirpie young lady on the cardigan video promised that it would "fly off your hook", but I wasn't finding that to be true at all. But with the back now done and the first front panel under way, it does feel more like I'm flying. The front panel is 45 stitches wide vs 109 on the back so that would be one reason why. The other would be that I am now so familiar with the repeat pattern that I'm not spending nearly as much time puzzling over instructions and counting stitches.

Also felt like I was flying on Venetian tiles as I machine quilted the four big blocks and 4 of the remaining cornerstones needing a thread color change. My machine quilting does not bear close inspection, stitches quite tiny and my less than steady hands struggled for smooth lines where I wanted them to be. And again, the thinness of the batting means one doesn't even see any texture rising from those 4 main blocks that aren't heavily quilted. Good thing this is just for me and the patterns of the kaleidoscopes are really what I want seen.

And then it was time to work on the binding. This is what I had left of the fabric that bordered the blocks to make sashing, and I hoped there'd be enough to provide the same burgundy edge around the outside. 

So this required a bit of math calculations, deciding that the binding would be a half inch wide, then figuring how wide to cut strips so that stripe fell in the right place, and finally, with that figure, was there enough fabric. Yes! A lot of seams but more than enough. On the left is what I came up with and used as a template of sorts to make sure I was cutting the binding in the right spot.

I had hoped to have the binding sewn on by the end of the week but it didn't happen. I still had to do a bit of calculation to determine where exactly to trim the quilt beyond the edge of the top. That strip will actually be applied face down, not as it is seen here, but my trial had it face up so I could see exactly where it would turn to the back. All this thinking tired me out! Best to take a few days off before actually trimming the quilt top and sewing on the binding. Priority for the upcoming week.

In a break between machine quilting and figuring binding, I took the time to cover with washi tape a box that saline packets come in. Washi tape is still a mystery to me, not really understanding how to use it no matter how many times I watch videos of it being used. Still, like any good crafter, I've bought more than one spool of it and rarely have used any of it. But I am a sucker for anything William Morris and could not resist buying a roll of this wider washi tape with one of his designs on it. 

It made pretty quick work of covering the box which I will either keep my rolls of washi tape or maybe linen binding thread in. I can see now I need to put a little more tape on it to cover the inside of the lid. 

Finally, I had a surprise visitor to my deck garden. It got quite cool last week, enough for me to turn on the furnace, which may be why this little frog decided to hunker down in one of my pots. If he hadn't moved as I watered the plant within, I don't think I would have noticed him in there.

 

Crochet Update

Haven't gotten back to quilting on the Venetian Tiles top yet, diversions including a weekend of multiple motorcycle races to watch, but I was still making progress on the crochet cardigan. I bought this as a kit which included 4 skeins of yarn, so when I finished up the first skein before I thought I was half way up the back panel, it worried me. Roughly, I figured two skeins for the back, and one for each front panel, with enough left for the cap sleeves. Will I really have enough? I figured out I'd be making 15 repeats of 4 rows (or less if I wanted to make it shorter), so counting and holding my breath. It was a bit of a relief when I paused to spread this out to measure it and see that the remaining few repeats left would bring it up to length and I should make it on that second skein of yarn.

Still feeling iffy about this yarn. Yes, very drapey, but crocheted up, it's making a fabric that is quite weighty. I can only hope that the finished cardigan hangs the way I anticipated from looking at the picture. I so want to be done with it and get back to working with regular wool and alpaca blend yarns.