Endings and Beginnings

The Center Panel Shawl is off the needles!  It was a very fun knit, but languished for a few months during the hottest part of the summer.  The weather got cooler and I got back to knitting.  It is a lovely piece and one that I will enjoy wearing and showing off...  It is not entirely fault free, but I really don't want to anger the goddess of knitting by being perfect!

 Here it is pinned like a butterfly.  I wonder about the wire blocking frames, and if they really work.  I usually block on a towel on this particular rug, but pins make for little scallops along the edges.

Here it is in all its glory.

 Detail of the center panel.

The corner, which is very cleverly constructed, and where all the extra stitches are added.  It was a kind of magic getting it off the circular needles, where it looked like a giant's beret, to lay it out and have the angular corners revealed.

This brings me to other things that happened this summer in my crafty lair.  A dear friend of mine took me to the International Quilt Show at the Santa Clara Convention Center.  To be honest I have never been drawn to quilting.  When I was a little girl my mother made the most magnificent quilt, she stitched the squares while I practiced piano.  She made enough squares to make two quilts.  I look at the quilt today and I see scraps of dresses that she made for both of us, sheets that I used to have on my bed, it really is a great work of art, and all hand stitched.  That was the first and only quilt mom ever made.  And I did not get any better at piano either!  The long and the short of it is that neither mom nor I ever really pursued quilting.  She is a fantastic knitter, and we both love to knit and sew, so quilting just never made it on to my radar.  I had always just assumed that quilting was a stunning but very precise art, and one that I excluded my slap dash approach to creativity.  And then the International Quilt Show turned my head right round.

I had no idea that quilting could be so marvelous.  In fact I will add a post after this one of some of my favorite quilts from the show.

Anyway I was inspired.  I purchased this kit for a wall hanging.  It is called "Window Spots" and is by Overland Originals http://chefab.cherrywoodfabrics.com.  My friend invited me over to help me put this lovely creation together.  This is not the most inspired photo of it, and I haven't finished quilting the swirls.  My sewing machine is not a long arm machine, so sewing circular patterns causes a great deal of bunching.  I will finish this piece, and it will hang in the living room.

  Then I got a little crazy and went off on my own tangent...  I purchased this beautiful piece of grey cotton fabric with black star bursts on it, and two small fat quarters of silk, one red one deep cadmium yellow.  I cut out the centers of the star bursts and appliquéd the silk behind each one.  Then I stitched the star bursts in black thread.  I think I am going to hand quilt it in variegated yellow thread in a squiggle pattern.  (This baby kept my hands busy during the very exciting San Francisco Giants post season....  I almost wish they had come home to win, I might be a bit further along).

And finally, true to my nature and this blog, I cast on for Cheryl Oberle's Cuzco jacket yesterday.  I am an exciting 12 rows in!  Hope to wear it by Christmas.

Other projects are in the works, but this time of year I can't share them because some people might get wind of their holiday fun !