Fleece-backed Quilts and Crocheted mittens

The fleece-backed nap quilts are a success.  I found some  1-yard remnants at the fabric store, and minimally quilted them wrong sides together.

The backing was about 2 inches larger than the quilt top on all sides, and I turned the excess fabric to the front of the quilt and zig zagged it down.  Easy as pie.

 ...And really cuddly too.  If I wanted to be fancy, I would've mitred the corners, but I'm not often fancy.

This week I also crocheted some scrappy preschooler mittens from Yarnville's free pattern Mrs. Murdock's Mittens.  It's an interesting patten with a few new tricks, but once I did one, it was easy going from there.  The pattern comes in three sizes: preschool, older kids, and women's and the mittens come out very thick. 

I put up a website for my book:  have a look and send me some feedback if you have any suggestions.

Home Again

I was on the road for a couple of weeks: to the CantoMundo writer's retreat in Austin, and a visit to my parents.  Now that I'm back, I officially took the butterfly quilt off the design wall sans borders.  Thanks to everyone who offered moral support and weighed on on that decision.

I had pieced a bunch of 5" squares for the aborted border, and decided to sew up some nap quilts rather than squeeze them back onto the Closet of Doom. 

So far, I've got these two, which are roughly 36" x48," and I'm still working in the scrap pile.  I'm going to get some fleece to back them and do some simple quilting.

The nap blankets, along with these knitted caps, will go a Head Start program for pre-schoolers on the Pine Ridge reservation.  The hat pattern is the Easy Peasy Charity Hat, free on Ravelry.

Here's a gratuitous cat pic.  Just so you can see how quiet it is around here these days.

A Quandary and Some Weaving

The butterfly quilt is still unfinished and I think I may be talking myself out of adding borders. It's 78x 78" and after straightening up my linen closet and quilt truck I realized I really don't need another big quilt.  As is, it will fit nicely on the twin bed in my sewing room.  Any advice before I take it down from the design wall?

While I mull over the future of my quilt, I've done a little weaving.  This lovely scarf was warped with a solid lavender sock yarn, and the weft was a self-striping sock yarn, alternating with a sparkly variegated yarn.

I used the sparkly yarn to break up the solid sections of the self-striping yarn.  The patterned parts of the self-striping yarn wove up into some nice geometric patterns.

Now I'm weaving a sock yarn warp with a variegated wool blend.  That's eyelash yarn in the warp along the sides.  I've picked up several colors in the thrift store and I'm experimenting with weaving with them.  I like the pop of texture it gives.