Cloth and Broth

During the last month, there has been a lot of knitting going on for our first grandbaby, Lucy--who is due in 3 months! No photos of the knitted items yet, but there will be eventually. (Still trying to keep those projects secret from Lucy's mommy.  :)

And on that note, shortly before Thanksgiving, the twin-size 'top-secret' quilt top for Lucy received its finishing touches. At that point it hit me that, for a couple of reasons I'll explain in a later post, this can't be quilted as originally planned--which was an overall, large-scale serpentine-line pattern on both diagonals. So, it was back to the drawing board...literally. After printing a black-and-white photo (why waste color ink?) of the quilt on regular 8-1/2 x 11 printer paper on 'poster' setting for 2 x 2 sheets, I taped them together and clipped them onto a drawing board, then laid a piece of clear vinyl on top.

Drawing on it with dry-erase markers, I outlined certain elements for echo-quilting, then very roughly sketched some general stitch designs to fill in the border and the open areas. It will probably change, but at least now there is some direction to what at first seemed an intimidating prospect.

Then for a fun break I started another 'ghost quilt.' (See the first one at this link.) Finished this second one today (roughly the same size as the first one):

On Monday it was 'out of the studio and back into the kitchen,' where the carcass of our Thanksgiving turkey, plus the legs and thighs, went into a 16-quart stock pot along with lots of veggies and herbs...

...which, after simmering 4 hours and being poured through a strainer, turned into this...

...a total of 2 gallons of thick, rich, golden, turkey broth. Yum! Into the freezer, ready to be made into batches of hearty, hot soup this winter.





This week it's on to Christmas decorating and, I hope, cutting fabric for the back of Lucy's quilt. I decided to use the two yards of hand-dyed batik from Fabrilish, pictured at right, for the center panel. I'd been saving it for something special, and it doesn't get more special than a quilt for your first grandchild!

A wide border will be pieced in alternating blocks in a dark-green Hoffman batik and a light-blue print--overall, a much more peaceful look than the lively, colorful underwater scene on the front of the quilt.




Hooking up over at Lizzie Lenard's Free-Motion Mavericks blog, since I actually got some free-motion work done this week. I love the idea of sampling thread the way she does. Check it out! Also linking up with Sarah Craig's Whoop Whoop Friday blog. She has posted some lovely projects from other quilters. And I'd like to thank her (not!) for reminding us that there are only 20 (now 18) days until Christmas...YIKES!!!


Have a wonderful week.  :)

Linda