on the trail

I'm working away from home for a few days.

I went to the restaurant in the hotel. There's an area outside of the restaurant where you can sit and it seems a little weird to sit at a table in the hall, but I peeked inside and the restaurant is hella dark (darker than the Keg) and I didn't really want to sit in there. It's noisy too. So I sat in the hall.

As I was sitting, I noticed that the person sitting at the table behind me was also alone. I thought she was waiting for someone, but then she ordered. I turned around and asked her if she was waiting for someone. She said no. I asked if she wanted company and she said sure.

We had a nice chat. I didn't eat alone. I don't like eating alone.

Random. Not knitting. Not quilting. More on that later.

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bleeding

This is what my Color Catcher looks like after the washing it had with the flannel, faux-cathedral-window baby quilt. You can't get Color Catchers in Canada, but I've recently heard that there's a similar product that you can get at London Drugs. This thing was white when it went into the washer. All the colour that bled from the blanket is now safely in this thing, and not all over the white on the quilt. PHEW!

This is how it looked before it went in the wash. All of the white bits have raw edges showing, so they poofed up and look a lot more interesting now that they've been washed and dried.

I'll give it to the Mama at the baby shower. I should be able to get a couple more things made by then too. I love sewing and knitting for babies!

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the sewing update

Now then ... this is where you see a lot more photos, my friends.

I was resisting telling you about quilt camp in my last post, but now I may type freely. I didn't want to make the knitting jealous, you see. A few weeks beforehand, I decided that I needed to make an iron caddy for going on retreats, and that my Mum should have one too. So I made them. My Mum picked the black and white one.

First off at quilt camp, I made a couple pillowcases for my daughter, the Batman lover. My Mum brought along a pattern for the easiest, cleanest pillowcases ever, and they were fun to make. It was the pillowcase burrito pattern.

There is one hidden seam that joins the pillow body to the cuff and the trim. It's super clean and lovely. Then you sew up the bottom and the side on the outside (wrong sides facing), turn it inside-out, and sew a seam that traps the seam allowance inside. That's a French seam. There's nothing to fray and nothing to pull. Genius. I have plans for three six more.

By the end of quilt camp, several other people were making pillowcases too.

I assembled the Batquilt next. It came together really nicely. I've fallen in love with bias-cut half-square triangles. I thought maybe the quilt wasn't going to be big enough, so I bordered it with a 1/2 inch of red and then put on about a 6-inch bat-border. I had it all sandwiched and ready to quilt, but my machine's behaviour scared me off. I send it out to a lovely woman for quilting on her longarm machine. If it looks good when I post the finished quilt, just ask for her name and I'll pass it along.

Also at quilt camp, I assembled and finished the Riley Blake challenge piece that I had to get done before July. My niece asked for a pillow with her name on it, and I had to do a challenge ... two birds, one stone. It's a 24-inch square. She loves her pillow.  :O)

We are having a zippy pouch exchange in my modern quilt guild. I had to do a practice one, so this is my daughter's new makeup bag, mismatched zippers and all.

I have two more cut and ready to go. One of them will get stuffed with something extra for the swap. That'll be fun. I got that fabric at a swap, by the way. I love it. I got about two metres of it, so it was a great find.

That's all for now. I'll try to do this more often. It'll make me look less productive, but whatever.

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