Finishing

The quilt top that I've had for the masthead of my blog for the past five years is finally completely quilted.  Whew!  If you look back through the blog archives, you'll see that I started piecing it in 2020, during lockdown.  When I was done piecing it, I was so wowed that I used it up top there.  

But I stuck it away, and didn't quilt it for a while, mostly because I was intimidated by it.  All those batiks, all those seams, and the wavy, ripply edges.  But fast forward to September, 2022.  I met Kate, a hand-quilter.  We both joined the Fiber Artist group at our local library on the same day, me with my knitting and she with a quilt she said she'd started 15 years earlier.  Just watching her made me want to pick it back up.  

But the only thing I thought I had to quilt was this top.  I bought the backing and filling, and waited for courage.  A few months later, Kate and I went to a quilt show in Petersburg of art quilts, and in the meantime, I took that mini-art quilt class with Jennifer Reis.  Kate commented at the show that I was attracted to the quilts with beads on them, which was very true!  One in particular was a sunburst with a lot of golden beads on the sun, and clear and aqua beads on the sky.

And that was all I needed to get going.  I have a lot of beads I've collected for other quilts and for weaving, so no shopping was necessary, and I didn't want to spend much time mapping out the quilting or the beading.  

This morning, I put in the last bead, and the last line of quilting.  I am so pleased with it.  It's one of those things you make sometimes that makes you say, "how on earth did I do that?"

I need to go get some binding, probably on Friday, and I will probably need to apply that by hand, because even though I quilted a lot of the ripples out, they still exist.  I'm going to hang it over the piano in my living room.

I commented in the post in February 2020 that I was knitting a sweater in the very same colors, and today, I'm knitting a pair of socks in the exact color combo.  They're the March pair of socks for the Self-Imposed Sock of the Month Challenge.

At least, I'm consistent.  This yarn is Malabrigo Sock in color way Diana.  The pattern is just a broken rib, because the last two pairs were complicated.

February's socks were finished on the 23rd, and I love them, though I think I'm going to gift them.  They are Merino, Yak and nylon, though I've lost the yarn tag, in color way Royalty.  The pattern is Deco Swirl from verybusymonkey, and if you don't know her patterns, you need to.  She's on Ravely, of course.

January's socks were finished on the 28th, and they are also verybusymonkey design, Woodland Sage, in Tributary yarn, but I forgot the color way.  Both pairs of these socks are so yummy and soft, and I loved knitting them.  

Now that my quilting hoop is free, I'm going to go back to the yellow fans, much easier to quilt!  But not quite as exciting...