Finished -- My First Swirl Jacket

I finished!  It only took me two months of knitting most evenings.  It's not perfect (I can point out a few errors), but it looks good and I like the way it fits.  I am already thinking about making another one in a monochromatic color scheme (red).

As mentioned in this earlier post, the pattern for my swirl jacket is  Sheer Beauty by Sandra McIver.    The two yarns:  Noro Taiyo (color #28) and Malabrigo Lace in Damask (#13o).

Here's a front view:

Here's a side view, isn't the drape nice?

Here's the back view:

Another of the back with the arms raised (and my dog Rusty who tried to sneak into the photo):

You can see photos of my blocking  here and here.

Four Friends

Updated 3/2017--all links removed as many no longer active.

I wish I had @zdoggmd talent, perhaps I ‘d have a better title with a play on say “3 men and a baby.”  Three of these friends are women with breast cancer, the other is a man with pre-Alzheimer's.   All have/are facing their diagnosis and life with amazing grace and strength.  All are raising money for their causes.  I want to share their links.

Two are local friends who are doing the local Race for the Cure and  raising money for Susan G. Komen.

Noor Kabani, MD works for Baptist Medical Center in their eICU.  Baptist put together Team Kabani for her.  Here is the link to join her team or donate in her name.

Heather Owens is the daughter of two friends, one a local ED physician.  I went to her wedding a few years back.  She is just 29 yr old.  She is writing about her journey with breast cancer at Fighting Fancy.  She is featured in the October 2012 issue Soiree magazine.  Her Race for the Cure team is Fighting Fancy (click on link to join her team or donate in her name).

The third woman is the wife of one of our medical bloggers.  I have not meet her in person, but have made quilts for two of her children and given her one.  She is doing “Making Strides for More Birthdays” and raising money for American Cancer Society.  Click here to join her team or donate in her name.

My fourth friend, DeWayne Nash, is a friend from medical school.  He lives near Austin, TX and is a retired Family Medicine physician.  His blog is Organic Green Doctor.  He is doing Walk to End Alzheimers (click on the link to join his team or donate in his name).  Here is a  link to the video   which features he and his wife, showing their involvement at the Alzheimer's Disease Center.

My Heart Stopped When Quilt

I finished the small quilt which is a "repeat" of one I made a few years ago -- "You Melt My Heart."  It was inspired by Movin Meat’s post:  Fearful Symmetry.  As before, I took the EKG, printed it out, enlarged a small segment and used it for the quilt.  The center design was machine appliqued, the dark red fabric was then hand sewn into place.  I then machine quilted it.  When I was sewing the binding in place, I noticed that even though I had carefully zigzagged the EKG design twice, some areas were trying to come undone.  I had to then hand embroider inside of the zigzag to make sure the fabric stayed in place.  The finished quilt measures 17.5 in square.

Here is a close up of the center heart.   Notice the Victorian window fabric behind the black with the “rose” in the upper area.  The Torsades de Pointes featured in the EKG is a beautiful but deadly rhythm.  I tried to do a play on the beauty of the EKG and the Victorian fabric when I named the quilt:  my heart stopped when (you walked in the room).

This one shows the chalk quilt marking before the quilting was done:

Here is the back before the sleeve and label were added.  You can see a "ghost" of the quilting but not as well as in the above photo.

Progress Notes --- WIPs

I'm making progress knitting the Swirl jacket I began over a month ago.  It's either going to be wonderful or a big mess.  Not sure at the moment.  Here's what it looks like now

Also working on a new quilting project.  It's a "repeat" of one I made a few years ago -- "You Melt My Heart."  It was inspired by Movin Meat’s post:  Fearful Symmetry.  As before, I took the EKG, printed it out, enlarged a small segment and used it for the quilt. 

The first one never sold on Etsy, so I donated it to my old medical school for the silent auction at my 30th medical school reunion.  Then I ran into a cardiologist friend, the conversation somehow turned to quilts and I showed him the photo of the quilt (based on an EKG).  He commented that he would like to make a bid on it, so I "won" the quilt at the auction and gave it to him.  I almost ended up in a bidding war with a young hospitalist who liked the quilt.  I apologized and told her why I wanted it back, she gave in.  I promised to make her another. 

Since I no longer have the same fabrics as the first version, I laid out some fabrics trying to decide on how this one should look.  I ended up choosing the two on the left for the heart.

I like this for the background but don't have enough to do the binding as well, so will need to make a trip to the fabric store and try to find something that will work as well or better.

One Pink Heart for Baby

Earlier this year I made "one pink heart" quilt for a young friend recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  She asked me to make another one for her pregnant friend who has been with her along the journey and is due to have her baby in October.  It is very close to the first one, but not an exact copy.  This one is 35 in X 45 in.  Because of the smaller size, I machine quilted it just a bit differently.  Both have the center area with 5 X 7 "white blocks" and the outer striped white-on-white border.  Both have the one pink heart.

I find white quilts difficult to photograph, but this one shows the two different white fabrics used

This one shows some of the quilting

The back is simply white muslin.

Please, check out my friend's blog, Fighting Fancy.