Charity Quilting

Four-patch blocks alternated with a single block can make such an effective quilt. This one was pieced by another member of Annapolis Quilts for Kids. 

This one was pieced by Janice. 

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by shopping through Amazon Smile. I don't earn anything from this link. This link lets your purchases support Quilts for Kids through Amazon. I don't add affiliate links to my charity quit posts on purpose. I donate my time, my machine, my thread, and my skill to the cause. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the EpochConverter for 2022 to see how I'm stacking up.

2022 Charity Quilt Count: 52

Charity Quilting

Another fun novelty print quilt pieced by Mary for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. 

This little quilt was pieced by Julie. 

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by shopping through Amazon Smile. I don't earn anything from this link. This link lets your purchases support Quilts for Kids through Amazon. I don't add affiliate links to my charity quit posts on purpose. I donate my time, my machine, my thread, and my skill to the cause. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the EpochConverter for 2022 to see how I'm stacking up.

2022 Charity Quilt Count: 50

Charity Quilting

This 16-patch was pieced by Mary for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. 

This super quilt top was pieced by Trudy. Both will go back to Annapolis Quilts for Kids next month for binding. 

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by shopping through Amazon Smile. I don't earn anything from this link. This link lets your purchases support Quilts for Kids through Amazon. I don't add affiliate links to my charity quit posts on purpose. I donate my time, my machine, my thread, and my skill to the cause. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the EpochConverter for 2022 to see how I'm stacking up.

2022 Charity Quilt Count: 48

Machine Knitting

I pulled out this cake of lace weight yarn and decided to try something perhaps a little crazy. I decided to try to make a boxy sweater. 

The good news is that the back is just a big rectangle. I used a 20 row hung hem. I used the drop shoulder sweater pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes and Gauges. It is a great place to start your sweater-knitting journey if you are a hand knitter. I found converting the stitch counts to machine knitting easy.  

Knitting the front of the sweater turned out less straightforward, or successful on the first try. 

I knit the front of this sweater three times. 

Each time there was a different problem. I dropped stitches. I lost count of the rows. It was challenging. 

I managed to get the front knit and onto waste yarn across the shoulder seams. 

I used a three-needle bind off for the right shoulder seam and added a hung hem collar. Next I will use the three-needle bind off for the left should and seam up the collar. I plan on hanging the shoulder to knit the sleeves onto the sweater. Let us hope that goes more quickly than knitting the front of the sweater. I admit this is turning out better than I expected. It is a great learning experience, too. 

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Fiskars 7 Inch Softgrip Student Scissors (snipping yarn)
5 Pieces 5 Different Size Bent Latch Hook Crochet Needle Hook (picking up dropped stitches)
addi Express Hook (picking up dropped stitches, hanging setup bonnet, finishing missed stitches)

The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns

Silver Reed LK150

Knitting Claw Weights

The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes and Gauges

Machine Knitting

If you think knitting machines can only knit large flat pieces of fabric you should check out this experiment. 

Here is the basic shape before blocking. This project used a single ball of Mandala by Lion Brand. This is the colorway Sirens. 

After steaming the edges don't curl as much. For this project I used yarn-over decreases combined with short rows to get the curved shape. I also added a couple rows of eyelets at the end. I think this could be so much more fun with additional rows of eyelets. I'll have to pick up some more yarn. It was a great experiment. I'm looking forward to the next experiment. 

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Fiskars 7 Inch Softgrip Student Scissors (snipping yarn)
5 Pieces 5 Different Size Bent Latch Hook Crochet Needle Hook (picking up dropped stitches)
addi Express Hook (picking up dropped stitches, hanging setup bonnet, finishing missed stitches)

The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns

Silver Reed LK150

Knitting Claw Weights

Charity Quilting

This is one of the tops I pieced using leftovers from backings. Scrappy is the best. 

Top pieced by a member of the Annapolis Quilt Guild for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. 

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by shopping through Amazon Smile. I don't earn anything from this link. This link lets your purchases support Quilts for Kids through Amazon. I don't add affiliate links to my charity quit posts on purpose. I donate my time, my machine, my thread, and my skill to the cause. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the EpochConverter for 2022 to see how I'm stacking up.

2022 Charity Quilt Count: 46

Machine Knitting

First, let's talk about creativity. This is what my cutting table looked like on Saturday afternoon. I'm in the middle of more than a couple things. This is my normal state of being and it works for me. Some days it doesn't, but Saturday was a good day. That contraption is the Silver Reed LK150 knitting machine. It is one of the least expensive knitting machines you can get. I borrowed it from a friend to see if I liked working with it. 

I fiddled around. I made some swatches. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos. 

I learned how to make a good swatch and use a stitch scale. It was great. This swatch is made using Knit Picks Swish Worsted. 

I made this shawlette that used an e-wrap cast-on, short rows, edge decreases, and how to place stitches on hold and work other stitches. I found the directions for this project on My Blue Heaven Knit's blog. As a first project I learned so much. If I make this again I'm sure it will turn out better. This was made using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. 

Then I decided to try something really crazy. I have this cake of lace-weight yarn that I couldn't quite figure out what to do with. I've thought about making it into a flowing shawl but the thought of how long that would take was daunting. I decided to try to make a very light sweater. 

This is the back of my sweater with waste yarn along the top edge. When I get ready to join it to the front I can either graft the shoulder seams or do a three-need bind off. I did not expect the color pooling. It was a happy surprise. I wonder if the front will do that, too. The basic pattern is for a drop-shoulder sweater from the The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. I've had this book for ages. I've hand knit a sweater or two from it, too. It wasn't written for machine knitting but if you are comfortable knitting by hand and have some basic machine-knitting knowledge you can figure it out. I don't even know if I have enough of this yarn to finish this project. This may turn out to be more of a light-weight boxy top than sweater with sleeves. It depends on how much yarn I have once the front is knit. 

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Fiskars 7 Inch Softgrip Student Scissors (snipping yarn)
5 Pieces 5 Different Size Bent Latch Hook Crochet Needle Hook (picking up dropped stitches)
addi Express Hook (picking up dropped stitches, hanging setup bonnet, finishing missed stitches)

The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns

Silver Reed LK150

Knitting Claw Weights

Charity Quilting

This little leaf meander is so perfect for this quilt. 

Top pieced by Jake for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. 

Top pieced by Julie for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. 

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by shopping through Amazon Smile. I don't earn anything from this link. This link lets your purchases support Quilts for Kids through Amazon. I don't add affiliate links to my charity quit posts on purpose. I donate my time, my machine, my thread, and my skill to the cause. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the EpochConverter for 2022 to see how I'm stacking up.

2022 Charity Quilt Count: 44

Double Wedding Ring

I finally reached the point where I wanted to start sewing some of the melons together. Don't expect the final quilt to look like this. I move pieces around every time I look at it. 

I think I have all the pieces cut. Big, involved quilts like this always take way longer than I think and I was pretty sure this one would take a while. 

Double Wedding Ring Quilts book from Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Creative Grids 6.5" Square Ruler
Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Juki TL-2010Q
Fiskars 14x14 Inch Self Healing Rotating Cutting Mat

Charity Quilting

Pieced by Julie for Annapolis Quilts for Kids.

Pieced by Gabby. 

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by shopping through Amazon Smile. I don't earn anything from this link. This link lets your purchases support Quilts for Kids through Amazon. I don't add affiliate links to my charity quit posts on purpose. I donate my time, my machine, my thread, and my skill to the cause. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the EpochConverter for 2022 to see how I'm stacking up.

2022 Charity Quilt Count: 44

Charity Quilting

This delightful little quilt was pieced by Trudy. 

And this one was pieced by Julie. Both quilts will be heading back to Annapolis Quilts for Kids for binding. 

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by shopping through Amazon Smile. I don't earn anything from this link. This link lets your purchases support Quilts for Kids through Amazon. I don't add affiliate links to my charity quit posts on purpose. I donate my time, my machine, my thread, and my skill to the cause. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the EpochConverter for 2022 to see how I'm stacking up.

2022 Charity Quilt Count: 42

Double Wedding Ring

I'm still making slow progress on my double wedding ring quilt. I love how these fabrics will become a wonderful, scrappy quilt someday. Those pieced arcs are just so great. I'm still cutting and rearranging as I go. I'm sure I will settle on a layout when I start sewing the pieces together. Even then, I may adjust as I start sewing. 

Double Wedding Ring Quilts book from Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Creative Grids 6.5" Square Ruler
Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Juki TL-2010Q
Fiskars 14x14 Inch Self Healing Rotating Cutting Mat