Sunday, September 30, 2007

Hurry! Last Day of Project Spectrum

Ever since Aug. 1, I planned to put up a post about the last triad of Project Spectrum ... here I am late as usual.

My participation in PS this summer did lag. I was busy with the new house and had some deadline knitting. I did finish these Monkey socks in Aug.

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And I was inspired to shop for PS colors!

Here is some orange Dream in Color sock yarn:

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And some purple Malabrigo lace:

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And here's an actual purple craft that I made, but it was about four or five Septembers ago:

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This was my second quilt and the first that didn't use matchy-matchy fabrics. My mom let me raid her fabric closet and helped me decide what size to cut the strips. I love this quilt! It's a large lap size, big enough to cover me and my legs, even my feet! (I hate it when lap blankets are too short to go all the way around the feet: dude, that's where I get cold!) The colors still thrill me. I am not really a purple person, but every so many years I just crave it. Purple doesn't really flatter me so I rarely wear it. Maybe that's why I was so drawn to it with this quilt. I didn't have enough purple in my life? That must explain the purple malabrigo, above. I am quite certain it will not look good on me, but I had to have that color instead of the blue or green that is pretty on me.

The quilt is a basic strip quilt construction. I remember carefully planning out which strips would go where. I bought the light and dark purple batiks from a wonderful quilt shop in the Milwaukee area.

For the actual quilting, I tried freehand on my mom's machine for the first time and I totally sucked big time. There are lots of very sharp turns instead of the lovely loops, but I got better as I went along.

I have not quilted or sewn anything for a long time, but this is inspiring me to get out my machine, a Bernina! I got it a very basic model (it doesn't do all the fancy embroidery) for Christmas in 2004. It's a wonderful machine and it deserves to be used. L and I started Yellow Brick Road quilts in 2005 but didn't get past the cutting out stage. We need to set a date to work on them!

3 comments:

Jody said...

Wow - I love that quilt!! I am on the edge of purchasing a new - quality - sewing machine. One of the main reasons for this is to do some free hand quilting.

I'd love your ideas on your Bernina? What do you like/dislike about it? I am also considering a Janome. We should get together and quilt sometime!

Pheelya said...

The monkeys look great!! And that quilt is beautiful!!

I can't wait to see what you make with that Malabrigo Lace yarn! I love Malabrigo!

Anonymous said...

Theresa, your monkeys are great - I love that colorway and they are so well done :)

And that quilt - it's incredible!! You are very talented. And I have colors like that too - ones that just draw me in even though I could never wear them!!