comfortstitching

Christmas knitting kit with kittens on

I finally got around to making myself a needle case for my knitting projects.  I searched online for a pattern then realised I had just the thing right under my nose.

By changing the pocket sizes to fit my needle collection (so far) my Project Book Pouch was the perfect hold all to hold all those necessary accroutrements - circular needles (for socks and cowls), dpns, crochet hooks, cable needles, stitch markers.....  There's even space to add my knitting book in there plus any printed patterns (always losing those just when I decide I want to start on something).

So I'm all set for sock knitting over the holidays.

This is my collection of book pouches so far - the top one for knitting, the center one for EPP and the bottom for embroidery.  The top two were made out of my new Hello Petal fabric (shipping this week I think) and the bottom one is made in Sew Stitchy.

Here they are all empty...

And here all filled up and ready when I am :)

December quilt

Every December I HAVE to start a new quilt.  It's the law (in my head).  Something about having to do all the things you already have to do makes my fingers itch to start something impossible.  This year it's the turn of the Tobacco Leaf quilt.

This one has been on my bucket list for too many months and once I got the idea into my head it just wouldn't leave me alone.  I am using the pattern from Denyse Schmidt's book - Modern Quilts Traditional Inspiration.  Her pattern is brilliantly written and very thorough.  I decided though that I should paper piece the arcs because I like a really crisp and precise look and I'm just not accurate enough to do it the regular way.  I made my paper piecing templates by tracing them from the Piecing Guide which is on the pull out template sheet.  Then I'm just making photocopies from that tracing.   Once I have the arcs pieced, I trim them, remove the paper then piece the rest as normal.

See how busy my space looks, it's a hive of activity.

 Obviously I'm making it all in Hello Petal.

Doing the paper piecing is time consuming but worth it.  The rest really is a breeze.  So far I've made 12 leaves, so I am a quarter of the way there.

So that's it so far this week.  Basically I've made a pile of fabric leaves.  As you do.  In December.

magic stars part two

Over the weekend I pieced up a new Magic Stars quilt top, this time all in Hello Petal.  For this one I decided to omit the borders and I much rather prefer it without.  This pattern goes together so quickly and it makes me so happy to admit that the pattern came about through accidentally piecing some blocks the wrong way up.  I love it when accidental turns out better than intentional.

This is how  my design space looks currently, Skip is on the left and Magic Stars on the right.  It makes for a very pretty site.  Both quilts are calling out for me to quilt them right now but I just so happen to have started another quilt...

I see December is going to involve alot of quilting and a binding marathon :)