I'm back... maybe you didn't know I'd gone...

My phone and internet have been out of commission for the last few days. I was really glad to get it back today and have some catch up reading to do, but lack of internet access means I got quite a bit of progress made on my quilt and even more progress on planning my next few (dozen) projects.

Last weekend I sandwiched and tacked the quilt and this weekend I got it completely quilted then stayed up until 1am this morning attaching the bindings to the front of the quilt. I am using two and a quarter inch binding strips, folded in half and ironed. The raw edge was lined up with the raw edge of the quilt and then sewn on with a quarter inch seam, one side at a time. The folded edge will then be sewn down to the back by hand, using the machine stitching as a guide I attached the binding to the two long sides first then sewed a small section at each corner down to the back by hand so that I could sew the end bindings, ends folded inside, over the side bindings. This way, the end binding encloses the side binding neatly, I can sew it all down neatly by hand, and best of all, I don’t have to work out how to mitre the corners. Once the hand sewing is done I will take the tacking out and the quilt will be complete. I am hoping to get the hand work done this week in the late evening and early morning.

There was a Simplicity pattern sale at a large on line pattern store last week and I succumbed to two patterns, just before my internet access collapsed; a knit dress (3775) which has over sixty reviews on Pattern Review. http://www.simplicity.com/images/product/large/3775.jpg
and a cardi/cosy, Simplicity 2603, which is another pattern that is generating a lot of interest on Pattern Review; it has its own sewalong and so far there are seventeen reviews. http://www.simplicity.com/images/product/large/2603.jpg
I thought it would be perfect for some fine lacy knit I got last year. Of course, I then found that the piece of fabric wasn’t big enough for the longer wrap version that I wanted. But, I can get the shorter jacket out and will hopefully make that this week to test the fit of the pattern.
The longer cosy can be worn lots of different ways; there is a video by DKNY which shows this but I don’t know whether its OK to post a link to it here so I’ve left it off. All the versions on Pattern Review are gorgeous but my absolute fave so far is Cabinbaby’s purple wool jersey version since the wool will make it warm and cosy but still lightweight and, of course, because its gorgeously, unashamedly and divinely purple.

I got the patterns as downloads, which made them much cheaper than I could ever get them on sale in the UK but that meant no sewing got done last week as I spent the evenings sticking sheets of paper together, tracing the cosy onto tissue and doing the pattern alterations. Since the cosy pattern apparently runs true to size I’ve made it in an XS size, except for the upper back area which I traced as a small. I then did my normal round back alteration and as far as I can tell from the tissue fitting, it should fit OK. I do find tracing and sticking bits of paper together curiously relaxing and oddly satisfying. Perhaps it speaks to my inner child, the one that used to spend hours on rainy weekends tracing period costumes from books and colouring them in; or colouring in those books of patterns made up of triangles and octagons and so forth I can’t even recall the name of these books now. Can anyone else remember them?

Whilst I was puttering about looking at patterns, I saw a lovely Burda envelope pattern that was perfect for two other knits I had, which are not quite stretchy enough to use for my TNT roll neck pattern. Even better, I realised I already owned it somewhere in the stash of patterns, and an extended rootle has now turned it up and I want to try it in one of the knits this week if I get time.

To try and keep myself motivated and on target I am going to try doing a plan for the week at the beginning of each week (not sure how long that will last), and for this week, the plan is as follows:

Short cosy jacket
Cyclamen pink knit top
Black Slinky knit long cosy
Trace Simplicity Knit dress
Finish quilt.
Knit the rib and leg portion of the current sock project.

All to be completed by Sunday 20 September at midnight.