Not in Kansas Any More

I present: The Oz Quilt

You can't see the little tornadoes I quilted on the sashings (the downside of invisible thread, I guess), but I am very proud of them.

Next up in the quilting dept: My daughter in law asked me to make a very special quilt from The Grands' baby clothes, and so I spent some time cutting 6" and 4" squares from rompers and dresses and shirts (what an odd experience that was- I remember almost all of those outfits, and bought several of them). I think I'll turn them into simple pinwheel blocks (with white)- that'll keep the project from becoming boring, while still not overshadowing the fabrics themselves (which are the reason for the quilt in the first place).

I also finished the Entrelac Socks (Twisted Fiber Arts, Kabam, Leisure). The Entrelac portion is a little loose, but the bulk of the design itself holds the cuffs up. If I knit this pattern again, especially from heavier yarn, I may drop to 7 rectangles (42 sts) rather than 8 (48 sts). But otherwise, the socks are lovely, and I am glad I reacquainted myself with Entrelac (I took a class once, but forgot all of it. Sort of like the 2 years of Russian that I took in high school).

This week's knitting is already planned- I'm starting Orion's Socks (the official Sock Summit sock pattern), and I am the South Dakota knitter for The Traveling Shawl, which should arrive today or tomorrow, for my portion of the knitting. I have 2 newspaper interviews and a TV spot lined up for publicity for the shawl, so if it's here, my next couple of days will be pretty busy. Check out the Shawl and it's travels here : http://www.traveling50statesshawl.blogspot.com/ . It's a pretty amazing project, and I am proud to be participating.

So I'd best go swim my laps and head to the Post Office.

Strangely Apropos

Yesterday, as I was sewing little tornadoes on the Oz quilt, there were tornadoes on the ground everywhere, including one less than 10 miles from where my husband and son were working (a farm house with no basement. And no root cellar). It was a hairy afternoon, one of those Interesting Weather We're Havin' kind of days that South Dakota specializes in, with storms popping up on top of storms popping up on top of storms, for about nine hours straight. Over the last two days, we got about 3" of rain (so the soybean pic tomorrow should be good), and a whole lot of rumble, boom and flash.

Though I had the laptop, flashlight and cell phone handy, with the TV on for constant weather updates (they do that here, when it's stormy), ready to make a mad dash for the basement if the sirens went off, I (mostly) calmly worked on the Oz quilt. I got the final borders on, the backing/batting sandwiched and pinned in place, and the entire top quilted. I am thrilled with how it turned out. I will never be a machine quilter's machine quilter, but my skillz have improved steadily with each project. I was able to make little faux tornadoes on the vertical sashings, and outline the rainbows on the squares, and highlight the faces and figures on the panels. All in all, I am happy with it (and I remembered to straighten the edges afterward).

Last evening, I worked on the Entrelac socks- I have about 1 1/2 rows of rectangles left on the second cuff. I no longer have to look at the instructions, which is nice. These cuffs are going to be a little loose on me, though the ribbing is tight enough (and the bulk of the entrelac itself will stiffen the sock). I think if I make another pair (and it's probably safe to say that I will), with the same size yarn and needles, I'll drop down to 7 rectangles (I'm doing the Medium size with 8 for this pair). And I'll definitely need to drop down if I knit entrelac socks with a heavier fingering weight yarn.

Today I plan to get the Oz binding assembled, pressed, sewn on, and tacked down. I shouldn't have to duck any more storms until this evening. I hope.

...and your little dog too

Usually, I let a yarn or fabric to tell me what it wants to be, but I have a deadline on this one, so I couldn't wait for the Oz panels to get chatty. Instead, I just started cutting. I laid out the big panels in a sort of symmetrical arrangement, and then cut up pieces of the coordinating fat quarters and filled in the blank spots. And whaddyaknow... it turned out just fine, even without Dorothy's input.

I still have to put a wider cream on cream border around the whole piece (it's going to be about 55" x 62"- a nice lap/display quilt size), but otherwise, the top is finished. I haven't quite decided how to quilt it. If I had time, I'd do it by hand, but I don't have time. So machine it is, but I'm going to have to be all fancy schmancy with the sewing because I don't want to *texturize* the faces. It'll be an adventure.

P.S. the dark brown print and the one I'm using for the wide border were purchased locally (and they match perfectly- how lucky is that?), but the other prints and panels are all part of Quilting Treasures Wizard of Oz collection http://www.quiltingtreasures.com/content3834.html )