Craftiness

We've been super busy this month, maybe I'll have time right now to catch up, this post will be all crafts.

I can post pictures of Katrina's quilt now that she's received it. She was very happy, and I can't wait to see it in her new little home, to watch movies with her snuggled up in it.

I used the rail fence pattern and 30's reproduction prints. I set out to make a red and white quilt, with some other accent colors, but when I got it all put together, I realized it's much more blue and white. I didn't realize how much my tastes influenced it until I laid out the finished top in the living room to look at it. It was PERFECT in that room. At least, it has a lot of me in it, and that's a nice quality in a gift, yes? Also, I intended to do a variation of the rail fence pattern that makes sort of open and close boxes all throughout, but I didn't realize until I'd sewn all of the blocks that I would need to sew half of them flipped. I thought I could just flip them around and then sew them together. So this is what it looks like and I'm still pleased, just a bit wiser.

Anna picked the fabric for the back. I held up two and asked her which one Kiki would like better.

I made another gift quilt a while ago, can't post pictures of it yet, but Matthew said when he saw it "That's so (name of recipient)", so maybe I'm getting better at picking out fabric for others.

I also made Katrina a nightie out of an old U2 Concert t-shirt, I was really really pleased with that. I'm excited about all of the t-shirt possibilities. I forgot to take a picture of that before I gave it to her, but surely I'll make more.

Right now I'm working on a Christmas quilt for our bed. I picked out the fabrics and cut out the blocks, and then Matthew made up a plan for how to put them together. It's my favorite way to quilt, it's fun to do something together. It's a monster though, I think I may have done something wrong in the mathematical step, it's going to be HUGE. Here's a picture of the grid.

I'm also working on a little star baby blanket, trying to use up some scraps. I'm using small yarn and a small hook and making a blanket in a shape! All big steps for me. I think it's coming along alright, I've modified the pattern a bit as I go, I think my version is better. *warning--crochet terms coming* I think it's better to use a decrease rather than skip stitches when making an inside corner, I don't like the holes that the skipped stitches make, and I don't understand the point of the slip stitches and chaining in one corner, they're not pretty. But perhaps I just don't know enough about pattern making. The other problem I'm having is size. I can sort of envision what size a square or rectangular baby blanket should be, but the star shape is throwing me for a loop. How big?

And Joanna just sent me two beautiful old fabrics and some neato pieced oval/diamonds, I don't know what I'm going to do with it all, but it'll be fun.

Oh! And, with our bridesmaids dresses we got shawls out of matching satin, and I'm going to try to make Anna a Christmas dress out of mine. Eeek!