Cold Winter, Hot Music: January Mix

I like music. In college, I used to keep up with all the music blogs and listened to bands with odd names that left my roommates scratching their heads.  Since grad school and joining the workforce (and discovering the wonderful world of knitting/quilting blogs), I haven’t kept up with that scene as much but I still love finding new groups or that one song that grabs your innards and holds on tight.

January needs loud, stompy stompy music to banish whatever blues may be creeping in.  This mix started out with just whatever I was listening to at work – Florence, Frightened Rabbit, The Black Keys, and morphed into something that, if personified, wore boots and laughed loud and was tough but forgiving.

Enjoy.  I know I certainly am.

Note:  I’ve been having issues getting this to consistently play while embedded, so here’s the direct link.

Chevrons

January has set in.  Here in Massachusetts, we have snow on the ground and overcast skies.  And although slowly the light is returning, this time of year feels most like Winter.  ‘Tis the season for hearty soups, red wine, and general hunkering down.

I spent the weekend being crafty.  I’ve cut fabric for a new quilt, this time Chevrons, from Hyacinth Quilt Designs (tutorial and additional instructions found here and here).  I’m using Terrain by Kate Spain which has the most vibrant colors.  I love saturated tones and botanical motifs and Terrain serves up double helpings of both.

Forgive the grainy iPhone pic – this was actually meant to be solely for my own reference as to how the fabric should be ordered.  But the fabric is too pretty not to share!

I also finished the binding on Foxes Out My Window.  This whole quilt was an adventure and binding by hand was no different.  I used the emerald green jewel pattern (as well as a bit of the forest green when the emerald ran out) for binding and was a big fan when the lines of the jewels matched up with lines on the backing fabric.  I noticed as I did this that my stippling tension isn’t perfect – the bobbin thread seems a lot tighter than the top thread, but I’m hoping that some of that will work its way out once I wash the quilt (or just make it more crinkly – I’m OK with that too!).

Tonight, I am going to try to darn a couple of socks with holes in them.  I don’t have a darning egg but Ravelry suggested a ladle!  Good call, Rav!

In Which Quilting Happens after a Human Error Occurs

I finished the top of Rectangle Squared over the weekend and it is (comparatively) huge(er than Foxes Out My Window) – I believe it has 90 blocks and the dimensions of the top are something like 71″ by 75.”

Finished the Rectangle Squared top!

The back, which I’m also hoping to finish tonight, is going to be white with a row of sailboats offset by a row of garden gnomes.

Basking in the glow of a second completed quilt top, I decided to tackle machine quilting Foxes out my Window.  I got a free-motion darning foot for Christmas, and I hoped that it would screw on, I’d drop my feed dogs and practice a bit, and then I’d go – I’m not particularly concerned that Foxes turns out amazingly well, it’s going to be a chilling on the couch kind of quilt just for me.

And here’s where the snafu hit.  I would press the pedal, the machine would stitch a few stitches, then make a loud noise and refuse to move.  Or it would jam.  Or the thread would break.  Or the bobbin mechanism wouldn’t grab the top thread.  So I checked the threading, tried a new thread, tried a new needle, tried a new bobbin, cleaned the dust bunnies out of the bobbin area, checked the threading again, tried a thread with a different fiber content, tried turning the machine on and off again, but nothing I did made the slightest difference.  RRRRRR clunk went the machine and snap went the thread.  Granted, by this time it was nearing the next day, so I gave up and went to bed, mulling over options for quilting classes, machine repair, or long-arm rental

In the morning, I read some quilting forums as I ate breakfast and one of them talked about a ten-minute DIY tune up.  So later that afternoon, I sat down with the list.  I had done a couple of them the night before but one of the items was check to make sure the needle isn’t in backwards.

So I checked just to be on the safe side, figuring that there was only one way to install a needle in my machine.   And sure enough, the needle was in back-to-front.  At this point, feel free to imagine both my gladness that my sewing machine wasn’t broken and my chagrin at such a simple, simple mistake.  An easy fix , a bit of practice on a rag, and shazam!

ACTUAL QUILTING! Also, meet Daphne, my 10-year-old Kenmore

I’m quilting!  Honestly, I couldn’t help squealing every few minutes at the pure joy of seeing a project that seemed indefinitely stalled hours before moving forward.  Granted, it’s not a perfect stipple but I’m starting to get a rhythm.  I finished about half of the quilt on Sunday afternoon and I’m hoping to get the rest done this week.

Curvy stipple quilting up close

I am so, so happy with it!

Shiny and Bright

I always feel like this time of year has a lot of possibility. It’s like a new skein of yarn or a new cut of fabric – anything could be done with it.  Freshly fallen snow without any footprints.  A new calendar, a hope for the coming year to be bright.

The lights on Comm Ave, Boston on New Year's Day

I haven’t made resolutions per se, but I do have some hopes and goals I’d like to work on this year.  I’d like to be more disciplined about working out and sleeping at regular hours (I’m a terrible night owl).

But I’m nearing completion on the Rectangle Squared quilt top.  The week after Christmas, I laid the fabric out on my kitchen floor (the only space big enough in my apartment to situate an entire quilt) and tried to make sure that squares of the same pattern weren’t next to each other. I also made sure that there is a red square in each corner.

Unsewn Rectangle Squared blocks on my kitchen floor

Last weekend, I finished sewing the blocks into rows during an epic craft day at a friend’s.  This week, I’ve been focusing on sewing sashing to the strips and sewing strips together.  As of right now, it is half way done! My goal is to finish the top in the next couple of days.  And then begins the adventure of learning to free motion quilt!

Quilt: Rectangle Squared
Pattern by Film in the Fridge
Fabric is Treasures & Tidbits by Piece O’ Cake Designs, sashing is white Kona.