something blue . . . but for a baby

i may not have been posting at all, but i have been sewing. jill and i have successfully reinstituted our friday morning sewing/quilting bees and i have been finding time elsewhere to sew, also. can't say i've been using those 10 minutes creativity a day exclusively for sewing, but i have squeezed out a few projects. i was determined to focus solely on the baby's quilt but as general conference neared and i knew i'd have 8 hours for handwork as i listened, i spent my friday morning readying more handwork. i got "out on a limb" to the point of binding sewn on (!!!) and completed 3 4sq blankets for edging, too. during conference i finished off a grand total of 1 4sq blanket. oh well. it's been nice to have the other pieces ready to work on at other times, too. here's the blanket i finished and delivered.

4sq baby blanket #15, another boy blanket for my friend becca. she was in love with those grey dots i used on my niece laynee's blanket so i hunted up some boy fabrics to go with it. it's definitely got a unique, funky vibe to it. i wasn't crazy about the robots and circuit board prints at first, but it certainly grew on me and i'm very happy with the results.

 

 

for the edging, i went with a dark grey for contrast, but rather wished i'd done blue or green. for a change, i did a very shallow stitch.

 

yep, definitely like those crazy bots after spending some time with them.

 

the other work done will have to wait for a wip post. maybe by then i'll have the half dozen quilt done, too.





hera marker

i've tried several methods of marking my quilts for  handstitching: chalks, pencils, pens. no one method is perfect and i was unhappy with each of these for various reasons. then i read a tip from aneela hoey describing her hera marker. love it!

 it's rather like a bone folder used for scoring paper - only it scores your fabric. i just run it down the side of the quilting ruler (below) and it leaves me a nice crease to follow (above). i don't have to worry about it showing up based on the color of my fabric or about it smearing, fading, or not erasing. it stays put until the stitching is done, even if i leave it for several days (weeks). perfect.

however, this being an imperfect world, i did eventually discover one flaw. it's not very portable. i took my quilt and thread to the park intending on contentedly stitching away while the little ones played, but as soon as i finished my first line i realized my dilemma. there was no place to lay out the quilt and make more lines to follow. boo hoo. i can't very well carry my cutting mat and long ruler with me to the park, either. i suppose if i marked several lines at home before i went i would be alright. but since i like to mark one line at a time as i go, that doesn't work. so no stitching on the go with the hera marker, at least for me.

other than that, it's my favorite!