Small stuff

A couple of recent things to keep this space up to date.

First, this is a laptop case for Number One Daughter who recently went through the trauma of having to replace a broken laptop. I used a tutorial from Sewplicity which has a useful guide for measurements for any size laptop.  This tutorial includes instructions for corded fabric handles, but I happened to have a piece of grey webbing so I used that instead.  The zip was in stock as well - love it when that happens.

Fabric Stats:

• Wildwood Fabric, Foxes on White
• Petit Street, Spots Grey
• Annali, Scribble Lines, White

And here is a plus pouch made from left over scraps. The background is shot cotton (Kaffe's, I think, rather than Oakshott).  You can't see very well in the photo, but I placed the pieces in alternate directions to get the slightly different colour.  It was great to use up more scraps.  Yes, the eagle-eyed will notice that for the photo I propped it on the liberty hoard box.

A pair of long wrist warmers for an orange-loving friend who broke her wrist and was feeling the cold after the plaster came off.  Here they are after blocking on a cake rack.  The pattern is a free one from Purl Bee.

Yarn stats:  Malabrigo Sock in Terracotta, although it looks more like seville marmalade to me.  

Linking up with Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet.

Red arrows flying geese quilt

This is my first big quilt for a while.  I wanted to do something modern with flying geese and to use red and white.  The geese finish at 5 inches by 2.5 inches and the whole quilt is about 65 inches square.  I had just finished it when  my son and his partner were off to stay in a cottage in Dartmoor so they took it with them.  They took these photos there. (Little Linhay in Dartmoor National Park - highly recommended)

There was much hesitation about how to arrange the blocks - there are so many options. In the end I went for simple rows, with the low volume blocks in a strong diagonal.  Am I alone in finding it annoying that the options I rejected are now closed to me, unless I make 338 more blocks and have another go?  Don't think I will be doing that again in a hurry.  I guess that is why people use software.

There was another debate over the quilting. I am no good at FMQ so I tried straight line quilting one inch apart.  This did not look great.  My walking foot does not seem to be doing a great job. Fiddling with the tension seemed to make matters worse.  I ended up stitching all the vertical seams.

The fabrics are a big mixture.  Two of my favourites are Moda Trade Winds and Red Rooster Soho Bandana. The backing is unbleached calico, and the scrappy border is from leftovers.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom for this first finish of the year.

Ed's Fair Isle Tube Scarf

This was knitted in the round using Malabrigo Worsted in two colours (two skeins of each).  I cast on 64 stitches, started with a 2 x 2 rib, and just put in all the 8 stitch fair isle patterns I could think of. I kept going until the yarn ran out. It is a very warm and luxurious scarf suitable for deep winter.