Fishing in progress

I now only have 2 1/2 fish to knit to reach my goal of 180!! 180 will make us a very nice sized blanket. I started laying them out on the kitchen table - I had previously figured out that I needed 12 rows of 15 fish each.

I could have taken pictures all day. I love the way they all look together. Some are with just one color and some are with more than one - it just depended on when I ran out of yarn. Above, in the middle of this photo, you can see a fish that has 4 colors!! Just little bits that I didn't want to waste :o)
Right here are 120 fish. 10 rows of 12 fish. I was rearranging them to try to balance to colors so that there wouldn't be too many of one color all together.
Then I bagged them up in order by row. Each row getting it's own bag. I can take from the top of the bag and they stay in the order I want. As I finish sewing a bag of fish together, I can just grab the next bag.

All ten rows bagged up!

The start of my seaming. As always, I am slow - it is taking me about 5 minutes per fish - so about an hour per row.
The first three rows done. My oldest had an AP Chemistry tutoring session (1 1/2 hours) and this is what I worked on.

The front seaming of the blanket will look like this.

I really like the braid that is formed by this method.

And the back seaming looks like this. I seriously can't decide which I like best. I hosted a knit night with my friends here last Friday night and they were split almost exactly 50/50 on who liked the front the best and who liked the back the best.

Those zig zags just look so fun!

3 rows done - 12 more to go :o) Not too much longer and this baby will be hanging out on our couch :o)

Go visit Tami's to see more works in progress.

Tuesday Tallies

The class quilts are done and hanging in the classrooms until later this week when I take them down and bring them to be hung at the auction site. It seems as if everyone likes them, so I am hopeful we can bring in some good money - we need so many things at the school.

Here are the next 7 hexies. If you look closely, there are 2 that are smaller than the rest. As I was trying to make some of those cute hexies from charts that clever people have designed, I realized that I have been making my puffs two rows less than they should be! ARRGH!! I am not going to re-do all the ones I have already made - I am hoping that I can kind of "wing it" when I am sewing them together. Notice the striped one up there, you will see more of those to come. Also, I think I am going to try some Mario Bros Characters soon. This is the perfect project to learn new skills!
The next 7 fish. Only 5 more to knit *sigh*. Yes, I am glad to see this project nearing it's end, but somehow I think I am going to miss knitting fish. Crazy, I know!
I didn't have time to sew all the squares from the last couple of weeks into the next section, but I did knit 7 squares for the third section. I don't think I will ever get tired of these. They make up so quickly, if I let myself I think I could be done with the crochet in a week or so!
This blanket is quite clever in it's construction. Instead of knitting up tons of little kites and then sewing them together, you pick up the sides of two previously knitted kites and knit up just like you have started a new one.

The kites with the stitch markers laying on them are the new kites, I have 6 regular ones and then started one big one at the top. These kites are becoming an addiction! I love to see the new ones "growing" out of the blanket.

There is one big mistake though - the directions said to start with a provisional cast-on, but since (in true form for me) I hadn't really read the pattern through and couldn't imagine why you might need this type of cast-on (and I don't know how to do that kind of cast-on yet), I just went ahead and used a long tail cast-on. Well.......you need the live stitches provided by the provisional cast-on at the edges to make an I-cord edging. The next "free" squares I make, I will make with the provisional cast-on and I will hope that just picking up and knitting some stitches at the edge of what I already have will be "good enough".

The original pattern can be found here and was made with sock yarn. Mine is being made from cotton so hopefully will go a bit faster, but will not have as many kites.

1st Grade Class Quilt-FINISHED!!

I can't believe that this one is done also!! I finished around 12:30 this morning and dropped it off at school at 8:30. I am so pleased with how it turned out and I think the kids were too. They were all trying to find their own squares!! It was pretty cute.

This is the front. I had so much trouble getting those white squares to lay flat and be even, but it was worth it!!

I pieced the binding and hand sewed it down on the back.

This is the back. I don't think it shows off the quilting all that well, but I had sewn around each square - all four sides - with not too much puckering this time. I think this shot also shows the binding a bit better.

My label - I just wrote on the back in permanent marker just like the kids did on their squares :o)

Such a sweet little quilt! I'll let you know what it goes for at the auction.

See more finished objects at Tami's.

1st grade class quilt

Almost finished with the first grade class quilt for the auction! The border is on and here it is being pinned to be quilted.

I measured each white square to be exactly in the center of a colored square - 1" border on all sides - then I used safety pins to pin in the center of the square and on each corner. Then I put pins on the seams between each colored square and also in the corners. where four squares meet. It took more than 3 hours and boy was it back breaking work!! I had to pin it while it was on the floor!!
It turned out that all those pins were not enough. The white squares that the kids had decorated were still slipping - sometimes as much as 1/4" as I was sewing down the side. I fixed this "little" problem by using straight pins every 1/2"-3/4" as you can see in this photo. I pinned these as they were going through the machine. Each time I came to a pin, I took it out and placed it in the square below.
Quilting this on my little machine, was not easy, but it is done now. The binding has been attached and is being sewn down by hand now. Should be complete soon :o) It will be great to be done with this!!

See more WIPS at Tami's.

One-a-Day

I barely managed to meet my one-a-day requirements this week. Been feverishly working on getting the second class quilt complete - still not done. It should be done in the next few days :o)

7 hexies - so far this is my favorite yarn because of the patterns it makes all by itself.

7 fish - only 12 more to go and then I don't need to knit anymore!! WAHOO!!

10 squares - I only needed these ten to finish up the next section and I couldn't stop until they were done :o)

Only 5 kites this week

Someone turned 14 and requested a special cake - my double chocolate bundt cake. I poured melted chocolate into the heart sections.

She's so big and capable!! Do you see the ironing board and fabric in the background? These have taken up residence in my dining room for the last several weeks. I bet my hubby will be glad when these things go home and we can have our dining room back!!
7yo and one of his good friends from down the street. Notice the handle bar mustache he drew on his face to emulate his cousin who used to have a real one!!

See you all next time :o)

Finished!!!

Well, here it is in all it's glory! The 4th grade class quilt finished last night. It will be auctioned off on March 3rd and the proceeds will benefit our elementary school.

Each child in the class made a square, as well as our teacher (his is the bottom right as we are looking at this picture). It worked out perfectly with 5 rows of 5 squares.
This is the back. The binding is the same fabric as the sashing and borders and I hand sewed it down. The quilt has a very nice weight to it.
My little sweetie's square! The opening bid for this quilt has been set at $75 - I hope someone bids on it.

There are a few errors on this quilt, but overall I think it's pretty good. As I mentioned before, this is the second quilt that I have made and I just kind of made it up as I went along. I'll let you know how it fares :o)

More finishes at Tami's and other fabulous fiber arts here.

4th grade class quilt

This quilt is moving right along. It is my second quilt - the first one was made in a class using a pattern from a book. This quilt is just a simple one that I put together on the fly.

It is pieced and now the quilting is done. I can honestly say I have done my best, but I am not all that pleased with how it looks. Overall, I think it's "O.K.", but as you can see there are quite a few wrinkles/pulls in the fabric.
Here is a closeup. I unpicked and re-sewed those areas where I thought I could do better, but left those areas where I knew I couldn't fix them.
I matched the bobbin thread to the fabric on the back, but chose a variegated thread for the front.
All that's left now is to hand sew down the binding which I started doing last night. I hope to have both quilts completed by next Tuesday so that they can hang in their respective classrooms for a few days before the auction. Wish me luck!!

See Tami's for more WIPs.

Tuesday Tallies

I am excited to be a part of "Tuesday Tallies" or "One-a-Day" as it's also called.

7 more hexies - I think maybe next week I will show a picture of the bowl they are all in - it's getting pretty full now :o)
More fish- I am getting to the end now - my next picture of this project will probably not be of fish, but of some of them sewn together. I am hoping it goes quickly!
More squares for the gingerbread bear blanket - almost enough to make the next section - I can hardly wait!!
THEN....because I have wanted to do these for a long time - I started another one-a-day. Kites to also sew into a blanket :o) These are super easy and super quick - although not quite as quick as the crochet squares for the gingerbread bear blanket.

More one-a-day goodness here!

4th Grade Class Quilt

I finally got all the squares designed by the kids. As you can see, there is a wide variety of styles and tastes.

I tried many different ways to put them together. I wanted to balance the very colorful with the less colorful - the tanks and guns with the rainbows and peace signs - the minimalist with the total coverage squares. I came up with a layout that seemed to accomplish all these things.

This is the top 5 squares sewn together. It will be the top of the quilt.

The next 5 with sashing in between the rows.

Third row. I am not sure now why I took these pictures at each row, but I really like the progression of the quilt. This is my second quilt - the first one I made in a class.

All the squares sewn together with the sashing.

At last.....with a border. I really like the dark sashing and border - I feel like it frames the students' work quite nicely.

Next is putting all the layers together, then quilting it, and finally putting on the binding. Whew!! Quite a bit left. Then there is the quilt for the first grade class :o)

Tuesday Tallies

It's Tuesday once again! This week I barely squeaked under the wire with my one-a-days. I have been working on two class quilts and that seems to be taking up quite a bit of my time.

7 more hexi puffs

7 more fish - I absolutely adore the wild yellow, orange, and green ones!

7 more mini grannies - I am almost at the point where I can sew the next section together and then attach it to the first, but that will wait for a while.

I am not sure I will make my next Tuesday Tallies - I must work on these quilts and get them ready for the auction. Only time will tell......

Lots of Tuesday Tallies over at Gingerbread Girls' place :o)