Day: October 30, 2020

Socks For Christmas

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I visited my massage therapist ten days ago. I noticed her largish sneakers – I asked what shoe size she wore – size 10.

I had already finished the first sock of a pair which I set aside. I worked on the second sock, extended the foot length by eight rows so it will fit her size 10 foot, then finished the toe. Next I unravelled the toe of the first sock, matched the yarn (which I happened to have on hand because I unrolled the better part of a pattern repeat so my second sock would match the first), added the required number of rows and reknit the toe.

Socks For Christmas

That Christmas gift is now done.

On to the next – for a smaller foot – size 6 shoe.

Skyline #3 – Completed

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Finished the third quilt a few days ago. It didn’t take as long to quilt as I’d anticipated in large part because instead of quilting single blocks I was able to quilt two at a time using the 360 x 260 hoop. I probably could have quilted 4 at once using the large “Garden Dream” reversible hoop (360 x 350) but it was just as fast to re-hoop blocks as it would have been to fight to take the hoop from the arm and turn it around and hope the positioning was close. The problem with that large hoop is getting the second side to align with the first. So I rarely use it for quilting.

Skyline #3 – Top

I am happy with how the layers on layers of circles turned out. There are actually five complete circles but they’re not obvious in part because the four quadrants are all different. But that’s also what helps with the layered effect.

To quilt it, I used a floral design I’d created for another quilt doing my best to overlap the stop/start positions where the design ended and began in adjacent blocks. Overall, the effect is to appear to have been done using a long-arm quilting machine.

Skyline #3 – Quilting Detail

Again, I used a strip from the original Hoffman “Skyline” fabric as a strip in the back – making sure I had it right side up in relation to the front of the quilt.

Skyline #3 – Back

The three quilts together as a set I’m calling “The Sisters”!

Skyline #1
Quilt Top Skyline #2 – Quilt Top
Skyline #3 – Top

Three very different quilts all from the same fabric.

Now on to something else.

The Last Day Of Summer

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It’s a week ago – October 22 – I spent the day with my friend Deb on the South Shore (of Nova Scotia) looking for bayberries.

Bayberry

They’re small, hard, waxy berries (birds eat them) wonderful for cleaning the soleplate of an iron. I collect them, remove twigs and leaves, and sew them into small cotton bags. Ironing with a hot iron melts the wax (which dissolves the gunk on the bottom of the iron) and the hard roughness of the berries scrapes it off.

However, there were none to be found where I’d previously harvested them. I checked with Margaret who was with me on previous excursions – turns out a house was built on the small stretch of dune where we’d found them before. Bayberries all gone! I’m going to have to locate another source.

Because it was such a lovely day – 20° C – highest temperature in Canada that day – Deb and I stopped at a stretch of nearby beach. Deb decided to have a wade – mostly so I could take pictures for her to send to family back home in Manitoba where they’ve been having snow!

The Last Day Of Summer

We had lunch at the LaHavre Bakery, then moseyed our way home. The next day, the temperature dropped substantially and while we’ve had some gorgeous sunny days it’s been quite a lot colder.

Summer’s over.