Birds in the Air

Since I've decided (sort of) to follow along in the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along, I should update my progress.  You should know I don't have the book and am doing this without benefit of templates -- so I'm more of a common-law wife, I guess.  I think there are a lot of quilting skills that are in the public domain, and analyzing quilt blocks so I can reproduce them is a skill I have that I'm happy to share, so you're welcome to follow along and make them with me if you like.  They go fast. I made the first 6 blocks in one day.

Birds in the Air is the 7th block in the series (gotta love alphabetical order!).  A 6" finished measurement (6.5" from raw edge to raw edge, ideally) means this breaks down into a 4-patch, each of the smaller squares finishing to 3" (3.5" unfinished).  So, knowing that the "magic measurement" for half-square-triangles is +7/8", I cut two 3 7/8" squares from the pink fabric.  (I'm choosing something vintage, thrifted, or upcycled for each block of this quilt: this block has pink from one of my late mother's shirts and the green fabric is a small scrap from my stash - probably almost old enough to be considered vintage).  Then I cut them diagonally in half and set them aside.

The real challenge is the tiny HSTs finishing to 1" - if I cut individual triangles for all of them, it would be very difficult to piece them.  For the 12 finished squares made of HSTs, I chose to draw a grid of 1 7/8" squares on graph paper to use as a stitching guide, which I pinned to the fabric sandwich.  This tutorial shows the concept; I've used this method many times, but usually I draw the grid directly on the fabric; this time I decided to use the paper in part to provide extra stability while stitching those super-small triangles.  After I stitched my grid of 6 squares (if you need 12 HST units, draw a grid with 6 squares), I cut them apart on all the solid lines.

Then I set up an assembly line and ironed them; pressing towards the dark side.

Finally I stacked 3 or 4 together and cut off the mouse ears with the rotary cutter.  Getting rid of that little bit of extra bulk usually helps when you're stitching the pieces together.

The pattern still needs 12 individual green triangles; I cut 6 squares to the 1 7/8" measurement and cut them on the diagonal.  Then I laid them all out in the pattern, being careful to line up all the green triangles so that their directional print was going the same way within each quarter of the block, because I'm strange that way.  And I sewed them together.  If you're careful with every step of the process and make sure your seams are consistently a quarter inch, lots of tiny HSTs are nothing to be afraid of.

Although, after making this quilt 4 years ago, I'm okay with most of my projects these days being HST-free.  Delectable Mountain Star, from the epic Mom Memorial Quilt Project.  You can see some of the pink fabric in there, actually.

Finished Shirt-Stripe Boxes

From Kaffe Fassett's Passionate Patchwork, a lovely book all around.  I made this with Steve's old shirts, and I love just about everything about it.  It's 54" x 87" and closely quilted in a cross-hatching design that gives it a crisp, modern feel.  It's tentatively spoken for by Primigenitus.

A closer look.

I put a hanging sleeve on most of my quilts... that way you have the option of displaying it as a wall quilt on a curtain rod.  It's not fancy, just a 5" wide rectangle of muslin folded lengthwise and sewn in along with the binding.  I hand-stitch it down at the same time I stitch the binding.  It's usually good for two or three long evenings of TV watching.  Notice the binding is also shirt-stripes, 2 1/4" strips cut on the bias and pieced together.  I like the thriftiness of scrappy bindings, too.

And a down-and-dirty quick label on the bottom corner.  I'm designating this quilt as "Wear it out" in the 4-quilt scrappy quilt series I'm doing, but the actual name is an unimaginative "Shirt Stripe Boxes." I could have delayed sewing on the label for another year if I had tried to come up with something creative.

More finishing techniques

For potters, they say that making a teapot is the test of mastery.  You have to form the main part, the spout, the lid, and then you have to make sure they fit together.  You have to pull a handle and attach it.  All the major techniques that a potter can use, are used in a teapot.

For knitters, I think that a cardigan is the equivalent challenge.  Very rarely do the knitting patterns include instructions for every single possibility.  You have to come up with some solutions on your own.  Here are some more technical finishing details for Cityscape.

First off, the buttonholes.  I ended up with 134 stitches on the buttonband using my "pick up and REALLY knit" technique that I described two posts back.  That means that I needed the same number for the buttonhole band.  Although I ended up with 139, I reduced the number by 5 as I worked the first row, by purling two together every so often.  The pattern called for 9 buttons "evenly spaced."  I believe in evenly spacing the buttonholes, and putting the buttons on last, because buttonholes are much harder to redo than buttons.  So I needed to evenly space 9 buttonholes across 134 stitches, with the buttonholes having a value of 3 stitches and the top and bottom buttonholes about 1 inch in from the top and bottom edges of the buttonhole band.  I allowed 5 stitches for the top and bottom margins (10 stitches).  Nine buttonholes x 3 stitches per = 27 stitches, + 10 margin = 37 stitches.  134 total stitches - 37 stitches = 97 stitches for the 8 intervals between the 9 buttons = 12 stitches per interval, except for the bottom interval where there were 13.  See, I CAN do math.  I still need to buy buttons, though.

I like the way the "pick up and REALLY knit" buttonband hides and secures the underside where the raw edge of the steek is, but I'm not wild about the uneven stitches on the right side.  So I decided to crochet a chain of stitches over that join, to give a nicer visual edge.  I experimented and found it's best to work from the right side, poking the hook under the 2 legs of each stitch and picking up the loop and pulling it back through both stitches.  I will continue this all the way up, then weave in the ends.  Then I will still need to sew on buttons, and graft the live stitches at the underarms together.  And I'll have a nice wooly cardigan.  Just in time for warm weather.

In which we get technical about picking up stitches for buttonbands

I have not remained unaware that, while this is nominally a knitting blog, I haven't been posting much about knitting recently.  Let's see if I can make up for that.

I steeked Cityscape last week.  Steeking - so not a big deal.  Been there, done that several times now.  The idea of cutting my knitting doesn't even make me break out in a cold sweat anymore.  Just machine stitch a seam -- carefully, mind you -- on either side of the column of stitches you intend to cut.  Then cut.  See?  Simple.

Buttonbands and buttonhole bands, however, always require thought.  The pattern says "pick up and knit" along the folded edge of the steek.  This means that you need to sew down the steek on the back side by hand.  I didn't want to bother with this, because I have practically no blue yarn left and it would be hard to stitch down the blue section with white yarn without it showing through.  Also, when knitting patterns say "pick up and knit" I have discovered that they really mean what I call just plain "pick up" - starting from right side of row where you are picking up stitches, and with right side facing, stick needle into hole where you will pick up a stitch, loop yarn around on underside, draw it up and voilà - a picked up stitch.  It requires only one needle to pick up a stitch, but the resulting stitches do not encase the edging at all.  This is not a problem on items like socks, but may be disappointing on a blanket or sweater where you have an edge you'd like to conceal.

What I decided to do instead was to "pick up and REALLY knit" the stitches.  I discovered this a few years ago, quite accidentally, when I was exploring the new-to-me technique of "Cro-Kay" in the Emma Peel dress from Mason-Dixon Knitting.  I couldn't figure out why my "Cro-Kay" edging came out looking like a line of chain stitches following along the edge of the knitting but set in from the edge, rather than an actual, you know, edging.  Kind helpers on Ravelry explained that what I needed to do was to "pick up and REALLY knit" (my words, because I can't help but think it's weird that people mean different things by "pick up" depending on who you talk to, and I like to be as precise as possible with words) each stitch before proceeding with the rest of the edging. 

Here's how you "pick up and REALLY knit" (if you're righthanded, anyway): With right side facing, and working from right to left along the edge where you intend to pick up stitches, stick RIGHT needle into hole where you will pick up a stitch, loop yarn around on underside, draw it up.  DO NOT STOP, you're only halfway there.  Insert LEFT needle into picked up loop from back to front, take the yarn that's on the underside of your work and throw it around the right needle, knit the stitch just like you would if it were a normal stitch in the middle of your knitting instead of one you just picked up.  You do this for every stitch you need to pick up -- 134 is what I came up with for Cityscape.  (You also are supposed to pick up stitches on vertical stockinette edges at a ratio of 3 stitches for every 4 rows, but I probably fudged that a bit.  I just need to be sure to pick up the same number of stitches on the other side, so they match.)

This "pick up and REALLY knit" technique does two unique things.  On the front, there is what looks like two rows of stitches if you look carefully, instead of one.  And on the back, the raw edge that would otherwise be unsecured is secured by the extra loops of yarn that it took to go back and knit the stitches you picked up immediately after picking them up.  This means I don't have to hand-sew the raw edges of the steeks down.  Yay!

Here's a closeup of the process from the front (the red scrap of yarn is marking the 50th stitch).  There are a few small drawbacks: The occasional gaps between stitches are more obvious with the white on dark blue, and the ribbing will begin on what is basically the third row, so it does not meet the picked up edge exactly.  But I think it will be minimal, and I really like the finished edge of the steek.