more rag blankets

I completed these a few weeks ago but finally got around to washing them yesterday. They look lovely! And only a few seams tore. I think washing them at the laundromat is rougher than washing them in our washer here. Oh well, no biggie - a few seams are easy to repair. Nothing like the misadventure of my brothers blanket, these are dainty little baby blankets.

The lavender one is for Ducky, the peach & white is for one of my pregnant friends.

snuggly!

Crochet project #2 - crochet edged fleece baby blanket. Super soft!!

My crochet stitches are much more even on this blanket. I think for the next one I will actually build up a row or two and do a scalloped, lacy looking edge! Rounding the corners is nice, too... everything flows better that way.

crochet-edged receiving blanket

Yipee!!!! I finished my first ever crochet project.

About 6 months ago I decided I would teach myself how to crochet. Using library books and some online tutorials I fumbled with the basic stitches - chain stitch, slip stitch, single crochet stitch - and was ok. Then I set the yarn and fancy bamboo crochet hook aside and promptly forgot all I had learned. When I found out that Ducky was coming I decided it was time to figure out the crochet thing again. Luckily, my craftygoddes friend Delilahh was around to help guide me through the basics. Let me tell you, it's much easier to have someone help you than to try and figure it out on your own!

My first project is a flannel receiving blanket for Ducky with a crochet border. Very pretty. I learned a few things... to pay greater attention to yarn/thread gauge and to determine your stitches accordingly. The yarn I had was thicker than I would have liked for the weight of the flannel, and the pattern I was following was (of course) for smaller yarn and therefore called for a greater amount of stitches per inch... I figured it out as I went, but aren't all craft projects learning experiences? :)

The blanket kept me busy during our SF Honeymoon #1, Darling Husband drove lots and I was the crafty co-pilot. Note the bottom right corner of the photo -- Captain Henry's whiskers!

quilt for bro, quilt for Ducky!

I'm almost done with the rag quilt I've been making for my brother. My intention was to have it completed by the time he came to visit, so he could take it home to CO with him. Well, that didn't really happen. Last week I thought I was done, but after it went through the washer and dryer twice it came apart at a few of the seams. YIKES! I was having problems with the bobbin tension on my trusty ol' machine while I was sewing the quilt... guess the problems were bigger than I realized! So now I need to muster up some patience and patch the holes. It was a fun project and I learned that I definitely will not attempt to make a queen or full size rag quilt again any time soon. After 15 hours I stopped keeping track of how long the process took. A fun process... except for this damn hole-patching that I need to get on!

The cats were helpful, of course!

















Completed it looks (and feels) cozy...














Ack! Loose seams = holy mess.
















On a brighter note, my friend Darling Delilahh (craft goddess) gave me some amazing things last week during our crafty girl dinner date... A vintage hinged picnic/craft basket full of fun cross-stitch kits, crochet yarn and misc. craft stuffs! She remembered I'd been wanting a basket and came across this one recently and put it aside for me. As if that wasn't amazing enough on its own, she gifted me with a vintage baby quilt for Ducky... 18 years ago she bought the 1940's completed quilt top and started on a quilt for the child she was expecting. She made the bottom in a coordinating cotton muslin, placed the batting between, traced an amazing heart quilt pattern on the light squares and began quilting away! A few weeks ago she was cleaning out a closet and discovered this partially completed quilt, realizing that the design on the soft pink squares were dressed up duckies and decided to give it to me to complete. Her husband looked at her like she was nuts, he remembered her slaving away at that thing years ago and never finishing it. Now she was going to dump it off on someone else? Of course Darling Delilahh knows me well enough to know that I'd appreciate all the history of the duckie quilt: vintage, updated, worked on with love by her hands and passed on with grace to an aspiring quilter and mom-to-be.

It's a beautiful quilt.
















Look at the fancy boyducks and girlducks!

















Of course, I definitely need to work on it. There are a few stains, some strange holes in the original top and lots of finishing work. But I get to practice hand-quilting! :)

my first foray into the world of quilting

Ever since I was a little girl (ok, littler than I am now) I've wanted to make a quilt. I had a lovely quilt that I slept with that had old fashioned ladies on it. No, not Sun Bonnet Sue - another more elegant lady with a parasol. Anyway, I adored that quilt. Still do, but it's only allowed out for special occasions because the cotton has worn away in spots exposing the batting. Recently I decided to check out a few books from the library on quilting and see how it's done.
Whoah.
There's much more math involved in quilting than I'm really comfortable with. Darling Husband has offered his logical, mathematical skills to help with the process - but I'm still intimidated. Well, I was intimidated. Now I'm excited about creating a real quilt after completing my first practice quilt.
Dear Delilahh is my craftiest friend. She taught me how to embroider a few years back and I'm addicted. Well, I mentioned the quilt desire to her and she offered to teach me. Of course she quilts. I should have known. Anyway, right after I returned the quiltmath books to the library Delilahh emailed me with images of rag quilts, explaining they were easy and the perfect starter quilt. I decided to make a baby rag quilt for my friend Viv who's having a boy in a few months.

Rag quilts are made with cotton fabrics, usually flannel because it's soft and frays really well. After about an hour in SAS Fabrics (amazing bargain buy by the pound fabric store in Lawndale, CA) I arrived at Delilahh's nest with a huge bag of fabric and a burning desire to quilt. She showed me how to fold and measure and cut the flannel and taught me how to use my rotary cutter safely. She showed me how to make the flannel sandwiches and how to attach them and assemble my quilt. Then we ate pizza, blended essential oils, cut hair and talked girl talk. With that bit of instruction I was on my own... And here's how it went!

Gobs of flannel, and choices... which ones for the baby boy?














Cut, cut, cut. The cutting went by quickly, probably because I had kitty-help.




















After all the squares were cut I assembled them into little sandwiches and sewed each sandwich together. On one special square I hand-embroidered the baby boys name.

The final layout. Darling Husband helped, thankfully.














The basic quilt. Note the exposed edges. I may be a messy sewer, but really it's supposed to look like this. All of these edges are then snipped into little fringes 1/4" apart. Then you wash the quilt a few times and those edges fray, giving it the ragged look. Hence the name rag quilt. :P Captain Henry really likes the quilt.














The final quilt, from the other side. Only the topside is frayed, the bottom is smooth. I like it.














After one washing. Nice fraying, but I will wash it a few more times. Hope the mom and little one enjoy the quilt as much as I enjoyed making it.