Painting, knitting, quilting

A busy but fairly productive week. There was, of course, painting. And there was also progress on Dashing . Here's one mitt.

For LLM, here's progress on my chenille quilt. On Monday, I picked out fabric.

(Note: I'm just learning about quilting, so I might not be using the right words to describe stuff here.) Tuesday morning was my first class. Actually, it was the only class for this project, which doesn't take a long time to learn how to do and which (so far as I can tell) is similar to a rag quilt, at least in texture (and which I'll be learning to make next month). But instead of piecing squares, you're working with whole pieces of fabric layered on top of one another, with the bottom layer facing RS out. Then you draw one line on a diagonal across the quilt (it can go corner to corner, but doesn't have to) and then a second line so that it forms a T (i.e., it's at 90 degrees) with the first. (Lines form a T, not an X--i.e, the second line doesn't cross the first.) Once you have your two lines, then you sew (and sew and keep sewing until you can't remember a time before sewing) parallel lines.

My lines are parallel, sorta. I started on the shorter side because it was easier. After your lines are sewn, you cut in between them and through all but the bottom layer of fabric which produces the raggy edges. I did just a little to see what it would look like.

I was doing fine in class, but then at home, I managed to bunch up the fabric and (sob) I had to rip out 7 of those seams. Actually, I'm still ripping--I only have patience for so much ripping, and then I have to work on something else. Which is probably why I finished this first of the Dashing mitts. The finished pair will go into my Christmas present stash, which is growing nicely.


Last post I mentioned that I had to alter the pattern a bit--which I did--and I'm pretty happy with the results. Basically, for each inch (each set of 8 rows) I multiplied by 7(-ish, i.e. it wasn't exact), which worked out this way:

• Cuff: 15 rows instead of 18
• 7 rows between cables instead of 9
• Hand: 21 rows instead of 24
• Thumb: 6 rows instead of 9

Now I have to go rip the mitt I started before I figured all of this out and start over. At least I'll be able to keep 15 rows of the cuff.