2012 April 05 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

April 5, 2012 · by JudyL

One of my designs, Star Gazing, is in the current Quiltmaker, the May/June issue. I have not seen the magazine and cannot find it locally so all I have seen is the link shared above. Many have written asking if there is a kit for this pattern. There is not. It was made with stash fabric but I do still have the navy and the olive green fabrics. I do not have any of the turquoise fabric left. For those who asked, I told them I would share some pictures of fabric choices and they are shown below. In all the photos, the navy and the olive are the same fabrics that were used in the quilt. The navy is Dimples by Andover Fabrics and the olive is an older Benartex line. The background is a white dot on white — bright white! Don’t be afraid to try different fabrics!

Cut apart, the fabric on the right would look very similar to the fabric in the quilt in the magazine.

The fabric on the right is brighter than what I used in the quilt but I think it would work . . I wouldn’t hesitate to use it.

The turquoise fabric shown below goes nicely with the olive fabric but I think it’s too dark to go next to the navy. I believe it would blend and you would lose some of the design.

I like this turquoise fabric below and think it would work nicely with the olive and the blue.

My suggestion for choosing fabrics for this quilt would be to choose your navy and olive fabrics (or whatever colors you want to use). Those are the two fabrics that are very different. Once you’ve chosen those, then choose a third fabric (where I used turquoise) that may be a shade of one of the other two fabrics but make sure it will not blend so that you can definitely see that there are three different fabrics pieced together.

Don’t be afraid to try something different. I have this quilt in my EQ sketchbook using several different color combinations and it’s beautiful no matter what colors I used.

Sock Projects

April 5, 2012 · by JudyL

Yesterday Vince took off work and we took a little road trip. I always need a knitting project for the ride. I’m still working on my Simple Skyp socks but was at the heel turning part on the second sock.

Turning the heel involves counting and then picking up the stitches for the gusset so I decided I’d save that for when I’m home and not in the car looking at sites like this.

Really . . how hard is it to knit while riding down the road when the moon roof is open and the sky is so beautiful? I wasn’t driving (or obviously knitting would not have been a priority). The sky, the hills, the wild flowers . . driving through this part of Texas this time of year is so amazing.

So . . I needed a knitting project. I grabbed this one.

This project was started earlier this week when I went to see my doctor. I like him a whole lot but his fault . . he’s too darned on time. My appointment was at 9. I thought I’d get there about 8:40 and get in some knitting. There’s always too much to do at home so . . I’ll just go to the doctor and knit. Well, at 8:45 they called me back there. By 9:02 I had seen the doctor, had bloodwork done and was out the door with barely having gotten a few stitches cast on! Maybe I should change doctors!

The yarn is Lisa Souza Sock! I absolutely love the color but find the yarn splits a bit more than I like. It’s been a long time since I knitted with Lisa Souza yarn so I’ll get a bit farther along with this project before casting judgment on it.

I’m using the Simple Skyp pattern for it too and thought I remembered the pattern and besides, I couldn’t find my printed pattern and Vince was ready to leave. Once I got all the ribbing done, I questioned whether I remembered exactly what to do next. We were in a section of the trip that had no cell service so I couldn’t get to the pattern online. Thank goodness, I had a second project in my knitting bag. I’m a girl with more than one project in my bag at all times!

These are just plain jane socks. The ribbing was done and a few rows of the leg so good progress was made on this sock. It’s always nice to have a plain sock on the needles. I can do these without a pattern and without thinking or counting. This yarn is Dragonfly Fibers Djinni and the color is Peach Melba and it’s much prettier in real life than on my gold rug. This yarn is amazing! It’s another one of those 80% superwash wool, 10% nylon and 10% cashmere, which is the same content as the String Theory Caper sock yarn. The String Theory yarn is 4 oz. for 400 yards, while the Dragonfly yarn is 4 oz. for 450 yards. It isn’t a whole lot of difference but the yarns are noticeably different. The String Theory yarn is much more springy while the Dragonfly yarn seems more tightly twisted. This is the first time I’ve knitted with this yarn and I like it a lot! I would be happy to have every color in both of these yarns! But, you know me . . I’m not buying any more yarn . . probably not today anyway!