Another day spent Puttering

 This is a finish! Last night I hand-stitched the binding to this quilt.  I had started it some months ago, when I was trying to use up my "taupe" fabrics.  Later on, I used the pattern in the center to make a quilt pattern called "Tic-Tacs", for a store event.  If you have that pattern, this taupe version uses the small block, as opposed to the larger version that I sewed in flannels.
On this quilt, I alternated some pinwheels with plain bordered squares, and added another border of simple half-square triangles.   Sometimes I'm just amazed at how such a simple repeated shape can turn out to be so pretty.

 I spent today at home: tidying up my sewing room, doing some housework, reading, and.of course, stitching.  If you recall, I sewed a kit from Christmas fabrics called "Jovial", ( here) and had some quite large leftovers that I wondered what to with.  I've sewn 6 of them end to end into a long, narrow table runner, since we have a long narrow table.  I'm currently quilting it, using a variegated thread. 

and this shows how I'm getting the lines straight!  However, I notice that i'm also getting a bit of the fabric pulling as I quilt as well.  I wonder if that's because I didn't pin it a whole lot, or because I "enveloped" the table runner.  That is, I sewed the 3 layers together with the right sides of fabric facing each other, leaving an opening, then turned the whole thing inside out.  I did this to avoid having to add 16 feet of binding.

Also yesterday I finished this interesting project:  What is it, you might wonder,

It is a small area rug, crocheted in a "basket weave" stitch, using about 5 strands of yarn.  There is one strand of yellow linen that makes a nice texture.  I washed and dried it in the machines, to try to get it to felt up.  It did quite well, considering that it was crocheted, not knit.  It seems that knitting felts quite a lot more tightly than crocheting, in my experience. 

And finally, today, I did what I have been wanting to do for a little while now, which is to devote a bulletin board to my test swatches of yarn.  I'm hoping that this will help me find what I need when contemplating a new project.  I have sworn off of making sweaters, as they don't seem to fit very well when finished, let alone look very flattering.  I am more focused on small things such as scarves, (which my mother tells me are pointless to knit, because you can buy  a lot of nice ones for very little money), hats,(which up until now seem to turn out a bit larger than intended-- which is why my swatches will be helpful!), fingerless gloves (which on the whole have turned out rather well), and things like rugs, which are pretty experimental.  I'm mulling over the idea of a handbag, or computer bag.  I also have a basket where I put lone mittens, slippers and socks, which for one reason or another seem destined to remain single.  But what do I do with them? 

  press here for the link-up