Making Winter Cozier - Two Works in Progress


Winter has been showing off this week, bringing fresh snow and turning the landscape here into a wonderland in white. Meanwhile, I'm working on a couple of cozy finishes!

Doesn't everyone choose the same colours to make slippers to match their quilt? 😉  Just me, then? 😄



Lucky for me, the living room in this rental house, not only has amazing views, but plenty of floor space for basting a quilt!  I almost had a disaster with my backing fabric - apparently I used the measurement for my initial plan of sewing a 6 block by 6 block quilt; rather than the  6 by 7 block quilt that I made.  Yes, I cut two of the three necessary backing panels to that smaller measurement. Not a happy thing to discover! Ooops.  Thank goodness, that I realized that by turning my backing so the panel seams are horizontal to the longest measurement of my quilt top, that I had just enough to make it work. Whew.

A happy sight!  All basted and ready to be quilted!

The second project that is nearing a finish is a pair of slippers I knit for myself over the holidays. They are made from the wonderful pattern for * Felt Clogs *designed by Bev Galeska.   Hands down, my favourite slippers to wear and such fun to make!

Amazingly, it has been four years since I knit a pair for my husband and my own hard wearing, cozy pair (click here to see the felting magic)  and with holes worn through my pair, I raided my yarn stash to knit my next. Purely coincidence that the colours of yarn I had enough available to use, also matches the latest quilt I'm making.

A before and after shot of the pair of felted clogs that I am hand felting.
  The pattern to make Felted Clog slippers is available here
Now, I've been making these felted clog slippers for over a decade now (not all for me, of course, because they do make excellent gifts!), but I've always done the felting step in the washing machine. The current rental home has a front loading washing machine, so that meant that I needed to hand felt my slippers!  I ran hot tap water into one of the bathroom sinks and adding a little Dr. Bronner's liquid soap, donned my rubber gloves and starting the felting process. One slipper, at a time!

One slipper has been felted and the second one is starting to felt!

Interesting to discover that it took about the same amount of time to hand felt each slipper, as it takes to felt both in the washing machine!  Definitely a time saver to use the washing machine, but I do like the control I have in doing it by hand.  I was able to see right away if an area wasn't felting as much as others, plus no worries about one slipper felting faster (and ending up smaller) than the other in the pair.  Yes, it was more work to felt these by hand, but also more satisfying!

Once the slippers have dried, I will be hand sewing a pair of leather soles onto them, because they really do extend the lifespan of my slippers.  I am looking forward to wearing these new cozy slippers just as soon as the final stitch is sewn!



I will leave you with this shot of the winter wonderland I mentioned earlier.  This is the view looking east from outside our front door.

Comments

  1. Gosh your view is absolutely stunning! Can you believe that I have never seen snow? So beautiful.

    Your quilt is just gorgeous and I love how you've matched your new cosy slippers to your quilt colours :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, what a beautiful snow photo. Just lovely. Stay warm! Love your projects too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really love the colors of your quilt! It is going to be gorgeous! And it was really interesting to see the before and after photos of your slippers! I wonder if you could make them with re-purposed wool sweaters. I seem to wear out lots of slippers and am constantly buying them. I started collecting wool sweaters for felting projects awhile ago and never did much with them. I bet they are really warm! And your view is spectacular! It really is a winter wonderland! I would never want to leave the window!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Katherine, I love your quilt, and I love your slippers. Both are beautiful and absolute treasures. I am sure hubbs will love his slippers too. How cozy. Your quilt makes me scream with delight and envy. You are so productive and that is inspiring to me. I am so slow... but I am making things, just slow bc of all of the grand girls are so cute, and my 96 year old daddy loves my attention.
    Your view is very beautiful, of course. It is like a dream world, so untouched by city traffic. Thank you dear friend for sharing your wonderful moments and treasures

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Go ahead...say something! Got a question for me? Ask it! I can't wait to hear from you... so start writing... and thanks in advance for letting me know you're sharing in my online adventures. Hugs and happiness to you!