Quilted foot pillow

I'm working on a super-secret quilted pillow cover present for <redacted>. Having never made a quilted pillow cover before, I decided to do a quick test run before I commit the real blocks. Brian needed a pillow with ties for his footstool so I whipped up a quick block and made it into a pillow cover following an envelope-backed pattern from crazy mom quilts. I just ad-libbed the ties. It worked great! I suspect I'll make quite a few of these because they're quick and fun and don't need binding, my least favorite step. 

Baby Alice's hat

My cousin recently had her first baby, a little girl named Alice. She is a cutie. I haven't met her in person yet but I have it on good authority. I knit her up a little hat using the Parrotfish pattern from Ravelry. 

 

I put up a Christmas tree

I've noticed over the past couple of years that every time we hike through a pine grove I really enjoy the piney forest smell. So this year I decided to bring some forest home and do a Christmas tree for the first time. It was super fun. Nick and I picked it up on Saturday and got some cider fixings. I put the lights and ornaments on while the cider mulled. Then I sat on the couch and stared at it for a bit. 

My tree aesthetic is pretty similar to Mom's: the lights are white, there are a million of them, all the ornaments are shiny. The cats are being very civilized about the whole thing, they act like it's been there all along. I did avoid hanging any ornaments below the lowest branches to minimize temptation. I really like it and it smells great. Happy holidays everybody.

    

Civil War quilt finished!

The Civil War squares table quilt is finished! I'm really happy with how it turned out. I like the modular strips, although they made for a lot of binding at the end. This way we can use it even if there are leaves out of the table. Someone floated the idea of not taking that table with when we move. I had to count to ten before I could explain why that was not an option at this juncture. :)

Front side of Civil War quilt.

Back side of Civil War quilt.

Modular mode engaged.

My next project is another tripoley board. This one is in pastels and dark monochromes. I've got all the pastel sub-units done. I had to buy some more black fabric the dark squares, now I'm ready to start on them.

Winter Hiking in Conway

We've been making an effort to get out and have some adventures this winter because adventures are awesome, even in winter. The Purdue Outing Club reunion fell on Valentine's day weekend this year, aka the coldest weekend of the season. We met up with about 20 POCers in Conway, NH. Some brave souls went downhill skiing, Brian and I stuck to slow snow sports to avoid enhancing the chill factor. We cross-country skied for the first time in forever. It's more fun than I remember. Sunday we hiked Hedgehog Mountain on a tip from the bookstore folks in Lincoln. It was the perfect choice, good views from the summit despite being below the treeline the whole way.

View from Hedgehog

Another view from Hedgehog

Lightly wooded summit

Spinning! (new hobby)

I enrolled in a spinning class with a college friend who recently moved to the area. The local yarn store hosts a two-session class with a very nice guy named Aaron. He somehow keeps a calm, even tone while all of his pupils are simultaneously creating massive wool nests and tangling their wheels up in ridiculous ways. 

The shop rents wheels to students, I got an Ashford Traditional (below right) and Anna got an Ashford Kiwi. I tried them both. The Kiwi is easier to keep going the correct direction, but my foot synchronization was off and I kept speeding up while using it. I've established a nice, nearly comatose treadling pace on the Traditional. 

Two Ashford spinning wheels in the dart room.

Our homework between classes is to fill two bobbins with yarn. During the second class we'll learn to ply them together. My first bobbin has quite a few corkscrews, I had some trouble getting my braking tension set properly. I've dialed it in better and I'm pretty pleased with the second bobbin. 

I was wondering to myself how long it would be before I rate colorful roving. Then at second Thanksgiving Anna kindly gave me some pretty purple stuff from her stash. I tried co-spinning it with some of the class roving. That was pretty tough. The purple was harder to draft so I kept ending up with patches of only one color. There must be some technique to blending the rovings.  I'm not sure I love the candy-cane look of purple on white but it might be nice with a more subtle color difference. 

First bobbin of yarn. I think this is the Corriedale.

Fun purple and grey gift-roving.

My second bobbin, probably Falkland. Half full with some purple and white candy-cane.

Fibonacci quilt nearing completion

The Fibonacci quilt came back from the quilter a few weeks ago and this today we spent a few hours getting the binding made and halfway attached. I need to pick up some black thread for the front-side stitching, then it will be done. Quilting with Nick seems to go much faster, probably partly because I don't get distracted as much, but also because it's way easier to manage a big piece of fabric with two people.

Front side - four Fibonacci spirals around a black square.

 

Back side - a sunset panel surrounded by extra fabric pieces from the front.