Princess Quilt for a Princess

Over the Christmas break I kept myself busy with piecing, and quilting, so that I could finish a princess quilt for this sweet princess.



I'd started this quilt well over a year ago (princess is now 9 months!) and would only work on this project sporadically.  As Christmas approached I decided to kick it up a notch and try and get this one finished and over to its intended recipient.  There were lots of blurry eyed late nights invested... but soo worth it.



For the quilt design, I wanted something that would allow me to feature the princess pictures out of this Alexander Henry 'Once Upon A Time' fabric.  I came across the 'Oh My Stars!' Quiltalong, which looked straight forward enough my for beginner quilt skills and would allow me to fussy cut those princess images for the center of different sized stars.  It is a great tutorial, and if you check out the Oh My Stars Flicker Group you will see some creative and diverse applications of this approach.



I composed the layout as I went along.  It took me a few shuffles of stars before I landed on a composition that was pleasing to me -- having a large central star surrounded by medium and smaller stars.



After I had pieced the quilt, I knew that there would be a strong probability that I would not be able to get it out to a professional long arm quilter for completing over the busy Christmas period.  So, I decided that I would quilt it myself!  I spray basted the quilt together and started by shadow outlining the stars in a Pearl DMC top thread - using this great tutorial for guidance.  And then further echoed that outline with Aurifil thread, until I reached the edges of the quilt.  It was a lot of work but well worth the effort.  I am enormously pleased with how this turned out.





I have my next quilt in the very early planning stages... more to come in a future post.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.  What fun plans do you have?
Sam xxx

Handspun Wurm

I am especially fond of handspun yarn. I love the squish of the yarn and that it has interest when it is not entirely consistent and uniform. The color combinations and graduations are gorgeous. I found a seller on Etsy whose handspun yarn is fabulous: Bockstarkknits.

Have you seen any handspun sellers that you would recommend?

 

I recently picked up some of Bockstarkknit's gorgeous yarn - a 2ply sock weight merino/firestar yarn - which I had fully intended to be a pair of socks. That is until I started unwinding the skein and rolling it into a ball... I then decided that it was too pretty to be hidden in a pair of shoes. It would be better suited for a hat.

 

The hat pattern that I selected was Wurm by Katharina Nopp, a free download on Ravelry. The yarn colorway was aptly named Bohemia, and for me, the Wurm hat also has an unconventional vibe that would work well with this gradient yarn.

   

If you have visited this blog a few years ago you may recall that I have made the wurm hat before. It is one of my favorite hats, and a really fun knit. Previously I had used 2 separate yarns for the knit rounds and the purl ridges. This time I worked from either end of my ball of gradient handspun yarn, so that it had a bold blast of color pop through between the purl ridges. I think it would have been equally effective if I had just knit from one side of the yarn, and you'd really see the gradient yarn play out.

 

So there you have it - a fun project for a gradient yarn, and a delightful knit to boot!

Apologies for my absence here.
Wishing you all good things for 2017.
Love,
Sam xxx