Cashmere Socks!

I've had very little free time lately but I finished knitting my latest pair of socks today.

They are not pure cashmere - the Smooshy yarn is 20% cashmere, 70% super wash merino wool, and 10% nylon. The yarn was wonderful to knit and it is so soft. 

It feels good to put my feet up. I love my socks!

Eleven finishes!

Note: not sure what is going on with Blogger and the centering????

Here are the most recent finishes - all eleven of them! Nine of the eleven are donation quilts.

The first is a North Carolina shop hop quilt from a few years ago. It is about 47" by 49" and stippled. The words "most of my friends are flakes" read up/down instead of down/up which is weird to me but that is the way the panel came. We will keep this quilt.

I pieced the back.

The kit of totem poles from Alaska were supposed to be two wallhangings - I made them into one. It is 26" by 38" and stippled around the appliqué. We will keep this quilt.

The back was a also a batik.

The orange and yellow quilt was something I wanted to try based on a quilt I saw a number of years ago. The orange and yellow strings are batiks. I appliquéd the circles onto the quilt. The 50" by 50" quilt is quilted with straight lines.

The back is cotton and pieced with some batik strings.

This quilt is made from a Lady Bug Blooms layer cake by Clothworks. It is 49" square and quilted with an orange peel grid quilting design. The pattern is Square Cut from Cutting Cake by Creek Side Stitches.

I used some left over pieces in the back.

This batik quilt was made from scraps. This 50" X  74" is quilted with straight lines in a double grid pattern.  The pattern is Sea Glass from Scrap Basket Beauties by Kim Brackett.

The back is cotton.

The Figtree quilt is made from a Honeysweet jelly roll by Moda. This 50" by 60" quilt is free motion quilted with a design I call three-loops. I cut each strip into four 6 1/2" pieces and six 2 1/2" pieces. Then I used two 6 1/2" pieces, two 2 1/2" pieces, and one 2 1/2" contrasting piece (for center) to make each block. 

The back is cotton.

I've always wanted to do a scrappy Trip Around the World. This quilt is 59" by 83" and I straight stitched it in the diamond pattern.

The back is cotton, also from my stash.

I made my own 2 1/2" strips to make this jelly roll race quilt. It is batiks as are the little red squares connecting the strips. The quilt finished at 64" by 72".

The back is cotton. The lines really are straight - I flipped this in the wind and took a picture.

The blue and white disappearing pinwheel quilt has a little surprise. This 62" by 90" quilt has a red back! I free-motion quilted this with the three-loops.

Here is the red back.

A long time ago, I asked for input on the orientation of the block with the white background on this next quilt. The diamond looks great on this 54" by  66" batik scrap quilt. The white is cotton. I free-motion quilted this with the wandering clover motif.

The  back is cotton and looks very much like a batik.

How long ago did I begin this QOV quilt? Quite a while ago but it is now done! The design is similar to one I once saw on a Fons and Porter show. It is a 65" by 73" scrap quilt with all of the blues matching. I machine quilted it with a large loop-de-loop.

The back is red with tiny blue tear drops.

That's all of them! I'll be passing the donation quilts on next week.

Piles of FINISHED quilts!

In August, I began getting serious about my quilt piles – the to-pin, to-quilt, and to-bind piles. I had all of these finished quilt tops that needed to be sandwiched and quilted. Most are donation quilts and they just needed to be done! 

Finished quilts

As I finished quilts, I shared a few pictures in August here, here, here, here,  September here, here, here, here, here, and October here. 

After finishing the 5 quilts that the grandchildren made while we were in Virginia, I really got BUSY. It was a full-time job - morning, noon, and night - almost every free moment. And now EVERY FINISHED QUILT TOP IN THIS HOUSE IS A FINISHED QUILT except one that I purposely kept back in the to-quilt pile! Whew! 

Earlier finishes waiting to be donated

Earlier finishes waiting to be donated

ELEVEN more finishes! I worked diligently with a single goal in mind – no knitting, no reading, and absolutely no beginning new quilts. I did fix meals, dehydrate food, do laundry, and pay bills. Last week, I needed to clean and my very sweet DH said he’d clean while I quilted! Most hours of most days were spent in the sewing studio.

Eleven finishes 

This old body cannot sit and quilt much more than an hour at a time. So every so often I would take a break and work on pinning another quilt. Then I ran out of quilts to pin and I still needed breaks. So I began cleaning, really deep cleaning, my sewing studio. Hard to believe that I have the quilts finished AND a super clean studio.

I'll share photos of the eleven quilts in the next post.

Doesn't look like I'll have much time to quilt for a week or so - the State Volleyball meet, mission pies to make for the church, friends to meet...  And we have yearly physicals today. We just saw test results online and Ray is still cancer-free. We are blessed. Life is good!