From A - Donuts Quilt

Back in the early part of this year, things were really really busy. I had virtually no sewing time and needed to find other (less time consuming) outlets for my crafty inclinations. I started pulling fabric stacks for quilts I would never get around to making as a stopgap until things eased up.

Surprisingly, the act of planning the quilt was enough and by never aiming to actually make the planned quilt, I avoided the stress of overloading my to-do list. A few of the stacks got posted to Instagram but that's really where things ended off.

Now that I have a little more time, I keep thinking about actually making some of these "planned quilts" and have finally started doing just that.

The first stack I grabbed started from one of my favourite prints in Liberty of London's Bloomsbury Gardens collection, Lytton in Magenta.

The mix of magenta, chartreuse, teal and navy in a varied bouquet of flowers just makes my heart sing but when I started pulling fabrics for my quilt, I ended up substituting the magentas in the original print for corals. The final stack of prints is reminiscent of the original print but definitely stands on its own.

A couple of weekends ago, I got to cutting out my fabrics and perfecting my Donuts Quilt layout.

 

The quilt top got finished last weekend and I sent it off to be quilted earlier this week. I'm hoping to share the finished quilt soon!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

From A - Finished Chevron Quilt

Kelsey's brother was engaged last year. As soon as Bree's wedding quilt was gifted, we agreed that we would make another joint quilt for Kelsey's brother and his new wife.

Predictably, months passed, we got busy with other things and we never actually took the time to plan anything . In about March of this year, I asked Kelsey whether she thought we still had time. A few text messages later we had a plan.

We had agreed that blue was a good choice and that it would make sense to keep the quilt mostly monochromatic, moving from white to black through shades of grey, aqua, teal and navy.

Kelsey pulled three different fabric stacks from her stash to find a range that had the feel we were looking for. The first selection ended up being the winner since it had the most contrast while still shifting nicely between the different colours.

Since I was mid-move, she Kelsey cut all of the fabrics into squares and grouped them by colour family before popping them in the mail with her half of the quilt and some short instructions scrawled onto a scrap of paper.

A nerve wracking week later, the fabric arrived and I got my half of the quilt laid-out and sewn together before sending it off to be long-armed by Sarah of Crinklelove.

The quilt came back from Sarah a few days before we left for the wedding. I happened upon the same fabric I used to bind my White Star quilt while digging through the stash and decided that it would be perfect.

It took me a cab ride, two flights, a pub lunch, the tail end of a late-night Harry Potter movie and the drive to the wedding to get the binding stitched down and a label attached. Luckily, the quilt got done on time and I even managed to talk the Mr. into holding up the quilt for a few quick photos on the way to the ceremony.

Finished Quilt Stats:

• Quilt Name: Chevrons

• Finished Size: Large Lap (78" x 68")

• Fabric: Various prints in white, grey, teal and navy

• Pattern: 5.5" squares inspired by this quilt by Bonjour Quilts

• Quilting: Retro Graphics design by Crinklelove

Linking up to Finish up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

From A - Olive Basket Cardigan

It's been quite the unintended blog hiatus for us. Kelsey has been working like crazy and I've been busy working and moving house. It's been hard to start blogging again as the list of things I want to post gets longer and longer and it's difficult to know where to begin. Often it's simpler not to post than to figure out how to collect my thoughts to draft something.

That said, I've missed this space and I've missed the longer discussions that arise from posting about my creative process here on the blog. As much as I love Instagram, it's hard to do justice to something you've spent months making with one photo, a few lines of text and a hash tag or two. So with these reflections in mind, I hope you'll forgive the glut of "old" projects that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks as I stumble through the pics on my SD card and share those that mean the most to me.

In that vein, I've been meaning to share this cardigan that I finished back in November. I started it back in July but did most of the knitting on our trip to New Zealand and Australia in August of last year. In true Amanda-style, it took me another three months after getting home to seam and block the pieces I knit so that I could finally wear it.

The pattern is Amy Miller's Olive Basket Cardigan. I happened upon it on Ravelry one day and decided it was the perfect basic for a California winter. I'm really pleased with how it came out which is a treat since I haven't knit a sweater since about 2008 and was long overdue for something new.

I managed to use some long hoarded Rowan Felted Tweed for this which makes this finish all the more exciting for a girl who recently had to pack up and move her rather voluminous stash.

Although I've made quite a few handknit sweaters over the years, this is the first one that I've really gotten much wear out of. I think the fact that it's a simple cardigan means that it's easy to just throw on when I leave the house. You can find some more details on my Ravelry page if you need them.

It feels good to be back. I'm looking forward to spending more time in this space again soon!