Nesting and Gift Giving

Fall is here. The weather is occasionally nippy and the days are shortening. My garden has a 'done' look. At times like this my mind goes all nesty (spell check wants to change that to nasty) on me.

I started obsessively going through my yarn stash and the knitting needles are out. I have a scarf and a neck warmer done and I'm full tilt into a cute little shrug. All that amazing yarn I've picked up at various sales is meeting its destiny. Yah! The pompom scarf is an inch thick. The pompoms knit and lay on both sides. Plush!

Now, all these things are for Christmas presents. I make up a drawer full of things and then let the chosen pick what they like - or not, doesn't matter to me. This takes all the pressure off me regarding matching the perfect present to the recipient. I like to make things. Why take away the pleasure of that with the perceived pressure from the recipient? I also never worry about any of them getting a preview via this blog. None of them read my blog, ungrateful wretches.

And if one of them does, that lucky person may make the appropriate sucking up noises if they see something they like. One year I did that. I sent them all a picture of what was up for grabs and the best suck up emails got first choice. It was an interesting year! Giving should be fun. Make it so!

 

I've also completed a baby quilt for the nephew's latest bun in the oven. It gave me a chance to try out the prairie pointer tool and pinwheels and echo quilting. This quilting is starting to be more of a big deal. I am no longer content with stitch in the ditch. If fact, I don't even like the way it looks anymore. I can never stay in the ditch (it's the car driver in me) and I don't like those resultant wobbly lines.

I've never made prairie points before and was a bit doubtful that a (rather expensive) metal triangle was worth the money and fuss. So I tried making points without it first. You just don't get crisp, even points without it, and you do burn a lot of fingers. It really is much faster, accurate and totally worth the money, if you need to make more than a few points. From the baby's point of view, she/he now has something to play with and munch on in a pinch. I'm so thoughtful!

For those who don't know what a prairie point is, those triangle things are separate stand alone insertions, like little flaps. I will do a page on this quilt elsewhere in the blog soon. Please note - the triangles are all supposed to be heading in the clockwise direction. Oops. I knew that.