Colorful Days

Dear Mandella,

The quilts are awesome! That four-corners one is just magnificent! I love your color palette (sp?)! I love your piecing! Oh, gawd, and you quilt, too????

Here (top left) is the basic unit for this new quilt top I'm working on. As you can see, it's comprised of four squares each of which are really 2 squares plus a rectangle. I have a light gold square in each, then the 2nd square and the rectangle are the same color; one set is a kind of oak leaf and acorn print (which comes off as kind of greenish) and the other is a rich brown spattered with black spots. When they're all put together, the overall design should be something like the photo below it.

Except that there will be more of it. A lot more. About 400+ little gold squares alone. The finished top (without borders) will be 60" x 60".

No, I didn't get a chance to work on this one this afternoon at my mom's house. I spent the time changing the dress pattern.

When last I'd written on the subject (October 6th), I'd put in the zipper and noted adjustments that needed to be made. Today I made the pattern adjustments and stitched a prototype (top portion only) from scrap fabric. It fits like a dream.

What I didn't mention earlier is that, when I went shopping for the 22" navy blue zipper for the trial dress, I happened to find this:



It's all crimped and creased and dyed lovely fall colors -- I think it looks like a whole lot of leaves that fell to earth and were kissed by sunshine! These are my colors! (Hmmm... they're looking a bit bright on my monitor. The reddish-violet is really darker than that. Oh, well...) So, I found a lovely deep reddish-violet in a dull satin from which to make the dress. The above fabric will be a simple shawl to wear with it. It will be perfect.

I have two sides (one long and one short) basted for hemming. My mom said she'd do the other two sides. I'm probably going to hem it by machine. It's just a narrow hem (about 5/16") and the piece is rather large (about 50" x 40"), so no one will notice a machine-stitched hem.

Let's see, other pictures I promised I'd show you are this quilt that was made by M's mother as a shower gift:
Isn't it adorable? It's a bunch of all style handkerchiefs that are stitched to white squares and then quilted. I think there are 35 in all. This one I thought was particularly sweet:

To the right of that square is a little hanky that has vignettes from Omaha, by the way. And above it is a hanky just like one I'd had when I was a child.

Now, as for dyeing yarn yesterday, here's the results:

This is one of those sock blanks from KnitPicks. It was a gift from a dear friend, Lorna. I had lots of fun dyeing it. I'm considering making it my first toe-up sock projects, but I'm also considering knitting two halfs of a lovely, lacy scarf and then grafting them at the center.

Three skeins of Trekking XXL sock yarn (75% washable wool; 25% nylon) dyed in a motley collection of medium blue, blue-green, and light blue:

Three 8 oz. skeins of Louet Gems sport weight (100% washable merino wool) in a luscious red that is for me. I will be knitting a lovely pullover for myself from this:

Last, two trials of "Southwest Colors." The first one I dyed yesterday, the second one I dyed this afternoon. These are Louet Gems sport weight, both 8 oz skeins (about 500 yards each). My friend M wanted something like this for knitting a scarf for her future father-in-law. I think she'll like the 2nd better than the first because that orange on the first (remember our orange friend?) needed to be toned down.

And I dyed three silk scarves to match the "Pacifica" sock yarn (the Trekking XXL), the luscious red, and quite coppery to go with the southwest colors.

I'm tired and I need to go to bed. Lots coming up in the next few weeks!

Hugs and good quilting to you!

Judith