Not Knitting but...

I'll just wait for you all to pick yourselves off the floor.

Whilst knitting is my main hobby (as you can tell) I also love cross stitch and have dabbled in quilting and it is in quilting that we find my oldest UFO. In July 2005 the Lovely Husband, the Best Friend and I went on an America trip flying into New York for three days and then driving up to Boston through New England. It was wonderful and we were there for 4th July and saw a staggering amount of fireworks let off in the East River (I think? - we were by the UN building to watch them so wherever that is).

Anyway whilst on our craft shop crawl, sorry, holiday, I came across a bundle of brushed cotton fat quarters in blue, cream and red stars and stripes and needless to say they came home with me with a plan to make a big squishy cushion. We also found some wonderfully cheesy printed fabric with fireworks and the US as backing.

It wasn't until almost a year later that I found the pattern I wanted to copy - called America's Sweethearts in a quilting magazine and very slowly I have been putting the patches together on the machine.

And now... well it's finished. I decided that with a two week holiday-at-home there was really no excuse for not making a bit more progress so yesterday we bought the wadding, the cushion pad and a zip and yesterday afternoon I finished the quilt top and quilted it. As you see it doesn't have much quilting - I outlines the hearts and the stars and put in some straight lines to hold it all together but that's pretty much it. I also added the centre button - red with stars - it just seemed right.

Finishing the quilt was one thing; making it into a cushion cover is quite another. I am trying to get better with my sewing machine so I decided that this cover would have a zip rather than just being a slip cover and a concealed zip at that.

There are some fantastic instructions on inserting zips here and while I don't have a concealed zip foot for the sewing machine (I think I might get one though), I just tried to uncoil the zip teeth with my fingers and sew as close to the teeth as I could - I'm pretty pleased with the result:

If you've ever watched my family wrap Christmas presents trying to get the paper lined up just so then you will know that I am every inch my father's daughter.

So here's to memories of a wonderful holiday and some pictures of my finally finished object:


As you can see the concealed zip is not so invisible when under a bit of stress but for a first attempt with the wrong foot it's good enough for me!

Now when I said not knitting I probably should have said "not exclusively knitting". Foxglove it a bit bigger but makes very unexciting phography and the world outside is too grey to add interest by itself (plus my garden has seriously big weeds).

However, as Mary has now moved to the same county it seems only right that we should celebrate with knitting, tea and cookies. And so Sunday afternoon passed. The cookies were delicious (thanks Mary), the company was excellent and by the end of the afternoon Mary had made some serious progress on a small person sized sleeve and I had finished Argosy (but forgot to take any pictures until today)!:


I feel that Argosy missed out a little on the blog because for many weeks it has been my alternative "pick up and do a few rows" knitting, perched on the arm of the sofa. The pattern is interesting enough to knit a scarf full and yet shows off the silk to it's best advantage. I also had plenty of silk to make it which made me very pleased as I like a scarf long enough to wrap aroung my neck and tuck into the front of my coat. Now that it is October I fully anticipate needing a scarf in the mornings and this will be perfect.

So then, Foxglove, a sock and ...... A tangled yoke? - wait and see!