Knit along and socks too

The Skacel KAL fingerless mitts are done! Now I am working on a second pair for my daughter.

Also finished the second sock of the Opal Masked Ball yarn. Yeah, another blue pair of socks.

Civil War Block 8 - Cotton Boll

Barbara talked about stripes, and I don't have many Civil War stripes, but I had this in my stack of fabrics, which is stripe-y, so I used it. In order to get stripes that do something I ended up with bias edges on the corners :(, oh well, I will be careful with it.
I used Marti Michell templates, cropping the 4" square to get the striped pieces. Should have lined things up better, but not redoing it.
Right now I think I will use log cabin blocks in the four corners, made with 1" strips.

February border done - Stars for a New Day

It's growing! Got the border for February done today (although I still need to make the sawtooth stars for the final border). After March, won't see much except blocks, blocks and more blocks, 6" blocks and 4" sawtooth stars. I am going to try a new to me method for Flying Geese for the Sawtooth stars. You'll see the results soon! How I wish I had more of a few of these fabrics, but this quilt is going to be made with what I currently have, and believe me, I have enough for this quilt. But I do love the paisley I used for the center star, and would like to use it as a floating border in the next round, if I have enough. Hope so!

Brackman Civil War - Log Cabin

A nice easy one, Log Cabin for Lincoln and Uncle Tom's Cabin/Harriet Beecher Stowe. Paper pieced, since again, 6 does not divide nicely into 8 (for rotary cutting).

Richmond - Civil War BOW

Have I mentioned how much I love EQ? Without it, this block would never have come out as good as it is. A nine patch in 8" does not come out evenly! EQ templates are perfect, so after pulling the Richmond block into my project, I printed templates and used them for cutting. Since this is just squares and triangles, it is easy enough to piece without marking seam lines, so I put double sided tape on the back of the templates, laid the quarter inch line of the ruler on the seam line and cut out two or four pieces of fabric at a time (except the center, only needed one of those!). I layered the red and cream right sides together before cutting so they were ready to sew. I did trim the triangle tips with a Marti Michell triangle to make it easy to line up the triangles with the four patches.

Civil War Chronicles

This seems to be the year for Civil War Quilts. Maybe the sesquicentennial of the Civil War has something to do with it. Anyway, I am taking part in the Civil War Chronicles BOM, BOM 1 - Troubled Times is done. Just picked up BOM 2 and 3 from my LQS, they each have four blocks to do, which are the same, but still, now have eight blocks to make before the next packet is picked up! Need to pre-wash the fabric, then I can start cutting.
As per usual, I am drafting this in EQ and using Marti Michell templates when I can, which for this block was for everything except the center square. That I printed from EQ. This is a 16" block.

Knitting - socks and mitts

In addition to quilting, I have been knitting. In January I heard about the Trekking KAL sponsored by Zitron and Skacel, and led by Michelle Hunter (KnitPurlHunter.com). I started late with the January KAL, and ripped out the first attempt. I decided that two circular needles would be easier, got some, finally, changed yarn, and started again. Meanwhile, I started a simple sock to take along with me when I go places, using Opal Masked Ball color 3005. So when the KAL got to the heel (and my KAL sock wasn't there yet, still isn't), I tried the new-to-me technique of short rows. You can see it was a success! I really like these, no picking up of stitches after the heel flap! One down, one on the needles, barely started but a couple of rounds done. Meanwhile my January KAL sock is about to be ripped out again, more practice for knit from the toe up.

The February project for the KAL is fingerless mitts, more learning, but KnitPurlHunter has great videos on her website, making it pretty easy to learn the new techniques. I have Part one done for the first mitt, and started for the second. I hope to keep up with this one and have them both done by the end of February.

Blissful Yellow Brick Road

Baby quilt is done, a bit larger than my typical baby quilt, almost 50" by almost 60". The most fun part about this was the fabric and the quilting. Did two overall designs, one in the center and another in the border.