Wide open zippered pouch for knitting projects

I am currently knitting a pair of socks as a test knit for some local designers, Knox Mountain Knits. I love their patterns and this one is no exception. Until now most of their patterns have been hats, mitts or shawls. These things don't often take me too long to knit. But these socks have been more time consuming for me and have been taking me away from the sewing machine a little. Although I have enjoyed evenings of sofa time knitting after a busy day.

 

The other day, however, I wanted to sew and I wanted a quick project. So I decided to make a new knitting pouch to put the sock project in. These socks have attended swimming lessons, soccer games, strings concerts and just waiting in the car! So I know a new pouch will get well used.

I have had some cork fabric sitting around for a while and it was telling me to use it. I used the tutorial by Stitchmischief, which is really easy to follow. 

I also chose to use some of my stashed Blueberry Park fabric too. They really shouldn't just sit on my shelf forever more! It turned out better than I expected and only took me 1 day to make! The perfect project. 

With plenty of room for a sock knitting project! 

And I just had to celebrate the completion with a short time out in the sunshine on the deck with a cup of tea, cos it wasn't really as warm as it looked!

More blocks for the box exchange

It would appear that other members of the quilt group have not been waiting until the end of the month to swap boxes and have raced ahead a little. So this month I have done the same thing and made a few blocks.

The first couple of blocks made for this challenge can be seen here.

First up this month was a paper pieced block. The paper and the starting white square was provided and I picked the colour orange. I do like orange. It's a bright and fun, and I actually have orange fabrics unlike some other colours! This block came together so quickly and easily! I am tempted to make a quilt like this for myself!! This quilt is going to be a rainbow quilt and I think it will look fantastic when finished. 

Next up the description said to make a black/red/grey 10" modern block. I looked up modern blocks to gain some inspiration. The definition of modern can be so encompassing. Modern I can be interpreted in a variety of different ways. For instance, a traditional block in modern fabrics, or maybe a modern block with a twist. A variety of fabrics were provided with this box, so I used several of them. I chose to make a star block. The instructions were for a 6 inch block and as I am discovering I struggle to do the math to make the block the size I want. This block should have been on more of a faulty angle, but sadly I didn't cut some of my fabrics big enough be able to do that properly. So my block doesn't look quite the way I had envisioned, but I like it and I think it looks reasonably modern next to the other ones in the box already.

Lastly for this month, I had to make a disappearing block using black and white with a splash of red. It would appear that black and white are not fabrics I gravitate towards when shopping! So I struggled to find these in my stash. And they look quite different to the other black and white fabrics used in the other blocks in the box. The other ladies choice of fabrics are more flowery, so I hope my block doesn't stand out too much. This was a fun one to make. Making a 9 patch with some plain and some HSTs and then slicing it up and sewing it back together in a different order. I like this block, I just hope it fits in with the others ok.

At the beginning of each meeting we have a quick show and tell of the boxes. The owner of the box is not allowed to see all the blocks until the end of the exchange, but everyone else gets to see the blocks. This is really fun and interesting to see everyones interpretation of the box theme!

Doctor Who Quilt ** Finish **

This quilt has been finished a while! I started this as part of a quilt along run by Whims and Fancies and Trillium Designs back in May 2013.

For the first few months I managed to stay on top of the blocks as they were published but then I got behind and had to play catch up and that took me quite some time.

Some of the blocks are posted here, here, and here. Until I had all the blocks but then it sat for a long time while I decided how I wanted to put it together into a top.

I made some text to go along with the blocks, but I didn't take pictures of those for some reason. But I did take a picture of a rough lay out.

For some reason it took me a long time to get this completed. 

Completed quilt top

I had grand designs for the back, more piecing and more blocks. But I had the idea to give this gift at Christmas and time was running out so I decided to use some fireside backing on the back instead. I chose a dark grey that went well with the purple. 

For the quilting I did large stippling around the purple background avoiding the blocks. I then did some small amounts of detailed quilting on the blocks. 

The quilted front

Quilting on the fireside backing

This quilt is large and rather heavy, but warm and cozy and finished! :) 

Stats:

Pattern: Blocks by Whims and Fancies and Trillium Designs, layout by me

Quilting: Free motion stippling and some detailed outlining, by me

Fabric: Kona Midnight and fabrics from my stash

Size: 65" x 80" 

Started: May 2013

Finished: February 10, 2018

This was on my list of goals for the first quarter of the 2018 Finish-a-long.